


The Third Storey Window

by shooponthemoon



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Babysitting, Children, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Parenthood, Restaurants
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-14
Updated: 2015-08-02
Packaged: 2018-03-30 11:59:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3935956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shooponthemoon/pseuds/shooponthemoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After retiring from a successful career playing basketball in America, Aomine returns to Japan and temporarily moves in with his best friends, their adopted son, and their dog. He loves seeing his friends again and the apartment is great, but dealing with kids has never been Aomine's forte. His future seems brighter when he finds out that their hot new neighbour is also into basketball, but things can never be that easy for Aomine.</p><p>Kid fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I should probably focus on updating my other fics buut... the idea was too good to resist and I have a weak spot for aokaga kidfics ^u^ guess this is a kind of birthday gift to myself haha
> 
> Title is meh right now, I might change it later... I also kind of like the play on story/storey, since this is the third phase or "story" of Aomine's life (1=growing up, 2=pro basket life and playing in US, 3=from now on) but ugh I dunno, it's probably dumb
> 
> Only thing I have to say is that in this fic all of the high school years would have happened differently, with different outcomes (or more like similar outcomes but from different events... it'll make more sense once you read the fic lol). Basically at this point in his life Aomine has matured a tiny tiny bit, and so has Kagami, hence why they're able to talk with much less arguing right from the start haha
> 
> enjoy! no warnings yet, I'll let you know when something pops up

Aomine yawned as he lazily scratched his head. He didn’t quite care for the crowded atmosphere of the airport, but he wasn’t in any rush so he didn’t mind having to wait around for Satsuki to come pick him up.

How long had it been since he’d last set foot in Japan? He’d visited perhaps twice during the span of his NBA career in the states, the most recent one being at least a couple of years ago. Over the course of his six years overseas, he’d played for four different teams, each subsequent change earning him a decent boost in salary as he was traded from team to team, everyone wanting to get their hands on the Japanese ace.

He’d decided to retire since his elbow had started acting up again, and what with his knee also giving him trouble he figured it was time to call it quits. Sure, he probably could have buckled down and held out for another season, but he’d rather retire early and still be fit to play basketball on his own time with his friends rather than risk damaging himself beyond repair, unable ever to play again.

With that logic, he’d bid farewell to the NBA and the states and headed home for Japan. He’d amassed a small but considerable fortune over the years, and as much as he would have loved to spend it all on a lavish lifestyle full of booze and women, Satsuki had drilled into him the necessity of saving up for the future, especially if he didn’t want to have to work fulltime once his basketball career was over. Aomine was lazy at heart, so it hadn’t been hard for his best friend to convince him to save and invest the vast majority of his salary, and for the moment he could take an early retirement knowing he was practically set for life, as long as he made wise financial choices from then on.

Aomine trusted Satsuki with the banking stuff; he knew his money was in safe hands. After all, she was Akashi Corp’s chief accountant, meaning she was in charge of all of the finances of their old friend’s company. It was quite the prestigious position, and came with a rather cushy salary, so dealing with Aomine’s finances along with her own was definitely a piece of cake for her.

Aomine looked around once again, trying to spot a head of bright pink hair. Satsuki didn’t seem to be here yet, so he allowed himself to crack a smile in anticipation. Truth was, he was really excited to be seeing his best friends again, both her and Tetsu. Made it easy for him that the two were married now and had invited him to stay with them for a few months while he looked for a place of his own.

In fact, the first time he’d come back to Japan had been for their wedding, where he’d been Tetsu’s best man. He’d known for a while that his light blue-haired friend was asexual, just as Tetsu knew he himself was bi, so for the longest time he’d figured that that had been the reason why Tetsu had never responded to Satsuki’s obvious crush on him. But it seemed like after Aomine had left for America, the two had taken the time to confess and talk things over, and Satsuki had easily come to accept that part of who Tetsu was.

And now look how damn happy the two were! They’d adopted a kid a couple of years ago, a little blond ball of energy who was constantly all over his father. Tetsu also worked part-time as a teacher’s replacement at a couple of different elementary schools, who apparently loved to have him come in because no matter which group of kids he got, they all adored him and obediently listened to whatever he would ask, which was a lot better than any other replacement teacher ever managed. The rest of the time Tetsu spent at home with Ryouta, their kid, while Satsuki was out and about in the business world.

Aomine stretched, letting out another yawn. Poor Satsuki had probably gotten stuck in the rush hour traffic. He wondered how tall Ryouta was getting now… it’d been a while since he’d had a chance to chat with them all over skype. The kid’s birthday was coming up in a couple of months too, and he’d be what, four years old now already?

“Dai-chan!” a happy voice rang out, and Aomine whirled around just in time to get tackled into a hug by his pink-haired friend. “You’re back!”

“Yeah, I’m back,” Aomine said fondly, returning the hug. “Where’s the rest of the gang?”

“At home, getting your room ready. Ryou-chan wanted to come, but Tetsu and I were both worried about him getting loose in the airport,” she explained with a laugh. Tears started to form, however, as she tightened her hold on the taller man. “It’s good to see you again, Dai-chan. I missed you.”

“Yeah, you too, Satsuki,” Aomine replied before burying her head in her chest so she wouldn’t be able to spot the moisture accumulating in his own eyes. “It’s good to be home.”

~~~

“AOMINECCHI!!!” Ryouta all but screeched the moment Aomine walked through the door. The blue-haired man almost tripped as the blond bullet attacked his legs, pulling at his pants to get him to pick him up.

Aomine froze for a moment, unsure what to do. He’d only ever seen the kid over skype after all, and so far he hadn’t had many pleasant first-hand experiences with children. He tried to catch Satsuki’s eye to silently plead for help, but the pink-haired girl already had her hands full making sure Nigou, their now significantly-larger-than-a-puppy dog, didn’t escape through the open door as Kuroko started bringing Aomine’s bags into the apartment from the hallway outside.

“Aominecchi?” Ryouta asked quietly, gazing up with golden eyes. Aomine looked down in time to see his bottom lip start to quiver, and without needing to think he quickly put down the bags he’d been carrying and in one swift motion grabbed the blond and lifted him up above his head.

“Look at you, kid! You’re so big!” Aomine told him with a grin as the boy began to giggle uncontrollably.

“More! More, Aominecchi!” The tanned man spun him around a couple of times before depositing the boy on his shoulders. Ryouta quickly latched onto his blue locks, and though his grip was sort of painful it helped Aomine to not worry that the kid would fall off.

“You do realize he will now ask you to do that approximately five times a day from now on, right?” a soft voice said from behind him, startling Aomine.

“Shit, Tetsu! Don’t do your shadow thing when I’m holding the kid!” he barked out. In a way, however, it was a bit nostalgic for him, as it’d been so long since he’d actually been caught unaware by Tetsuya like that. Damn his lack of presence.

“Language, Dai-chan!” Satsuki scolded him, giving him a good smack on the arm.

“Hey!” he exclaimed, pouting, but Ryouta’s excited babbling soon had him smiling again as he was led further into their home towards his own room.

In truth though, he was being given the guest suite of the place. Tetsu and Satsuki lived in an upscale apartment building in a great neighbourhood. The place was expensive, not necessarily because it was ultra-fancy or glitzy or anything, but because the units were big (only four per floor), security was top notch, everything was 100% energy efficient, and, most importantly for Aomine, the building had its own pool and fenced-in basketball court. He could see how this nice building belonged to Akashi Corp, and though Tetsu for one would probably prefer a more modest living, Akashi himself would not let his top financial advisor and long-time friends living in any lesser accommodations.

As Aomine sunk into his plush king-sized mattress later that evening, completely exhausted from having to keep up with Ryouta all day and wondering how the hell Satsuki and Tetsu managed it, he pondered what it would be like to also live in the very same building, staying close to his friends, playing basketball by day and sleeping like a cat at night in these damn comfy beds.

~~~

Mercifully, Aomine was not awoken the next morning by a screeching blond intent on kidnapping him to play more games. The house was silent as he got up, Aomine having slept in way past when the others left for the day. Satsuki and Tetsu were both working, and Ryouta and Nigou were with the usual sitter, an older lady who lived in the only first-floor apartment of the building. Aomine was glad his friends had not decided to trust him to look after their child as he too did not have faith in his parenting abilities.

Ryouta was cute and Aomine adored him, but being around the kid was exhausting, and half of the time Aomine hadn’t exactly enjoyed playing with the kid, more like confusedly let himself get roped into some sort of game that made sense only to the blond child, who had a huge imagination and simply loved being the center of attention. Tetsu seemed to be used to that kind of thing, being a teacher and all, and as far as Satsuki was concerned, Ryouta just demanded plenty of hugs and kisses from her more than anything.

After breakfast (or more like lunch, going by the time), Aomine decided to start unpacking, but got distracted the moment he came across his basketball, deciding he wanted to play. He dug around for his shoes and a change of sports clothes, tossing other clothes and basketball magazines everywhere before finally gathering everything he needed. He quickly changed, grinning at himself in the mirror before grabbing the spare keys and rushing down the stairs, too impatient for the elevator. Besides, they were only on the third floor, it’s not like it was a long way to go.

Clearly somebody else had the same thought, however, since Aomine almost ran into someone going up carrying a very large, very heavy-looking box as he zipped around the corner. With his agility and quick reflexes, Aomine was easily able to avoid hitting the other and passed beside them without incident. The other man wasn’t so lucky though; startled by Aomine’s sudden appearance, his foot had missed the top step and, as Aomine turned back to see, he lost his balanced and started falling backwards.

Quick as ever, Aomine planted his feet on a lower step and caught the man with his hands and forearms across his back for support. Where his hands held the other, Aomine could feel the warmth of strong muscle and the rapid beating of a startled heart.

“Shit! Thanks!” the other gasped as Aomine slowly pushed him up until he was standing on his own once again. When the man finally turned around to look at him, something in Aomine purred as he took in the man’s strong features, deep red eyes and equally red hair, along with his strangely forked eyebrows.

There was no denying the man was handsome, even more so when he broke out into a smile. Aomine had to fight the urge to blush because he was Aomine Fucking Daiki, NBA star, Japan’s ace, and totally not weak to redheads he’d almost crashed into on his first full day back in Japan.

“Ah, no, sorry, it was my fault for going so fast,” Aomine finally replied, giving the man a sheepish grin and wondering if he was fucking 14 years old all over again.

“Well, I was the one being dumb and moving in using the stairs instead of the elevator,” the stranger laughed, the sound making Aomine’s heart soar.

“You’re just moving in? Yeah, that is kind of dumb,” Aomine replied with a smirk. “Which floor you on?”

“Ah, third floor. We just started moving into 303 last week, but I had a few final boxes left to grab today and I figured the extra exercise couldn’t hurt.”

“No way man! My friends live in 304, I’m staying with them for a bit, just got here yesterday!” Aomine added excitedly. Holy shit holy shit holy shit hot new neighbour! He would have to thank Tetsu later for inviting him to stay over; this was the best thing that had happened to him since that last girl with the boobs and the—ok now was not the time to be thinking of that.

“Yo that’s so sweet! Hey did you maybe want to—” the man cut himself off when he noticed what the blue-haired man was holding. The redhead broke into a huge grin. “You play ball?”

“Ball is life,” Aomine replied, throwing his arms wide. The man laughed again and Aomine knew instantly that it was his new favourite sound. “You play too?”

“Damn right I do! I have to warn you though, I’m pretty good.”

“Oh really?” Aomine smirked, relishing the thought of surprising the guy with his skill, and perhaps showing off just a little. “You wanna come show me how good? Join me for a one-on-one once you’re done with your boxes?”

“Shit man, I’d love to, but I’ve got a lot of stuff I have to finish putting away today… Another time though, and I swear I will beat your ass.”

“Oh you are on!” Aomine said, slightly disappointed but still looking forward to a chance to play the guy.

“But as I was gonna ask earlier, if you want to swing by for supper after you play, I’m sure I could make something you’d like.”

Aomine’s pulse accelerated as he tried to calm down and remind himself that he didn’t even know the guy’s preferences yet so there was no way he could possibly interpret anything in the way he desperately wanted to.

“Teriyaki burgers!” he exclaimed. When the redhead quirked an eyebrow, he decided to elaborate: “They’re my favourite, but I haven’t had some in ages. I mean, obviously, if you don’t want to—”

“Yeah, sure, of course I can make teriyaki burgers,” he said with a reassuring smile. He shifted the box in his hands with a grunt. “Ok, this box is pretty heavy so I’ll have to let you go for now. You know where I’ll be, so see you soon! Enjoy your game!”

“Yeah, thanks!” Aomine said as he turned away and started rushing down the stairs again. He was almost at the bottom when the redhead’s voice rang out once more:

“Oh, right! My name’s Kagami!” he called down from above.

“I’m Aomine! Nice to meet you!” he tossed back up, the two sharing one final grin.

~~~

Aomine played long and hard, staying on the court for hours as the sun drifted across the bright blue sky. And it was totally _not_ because Kagami’s apartment window looked down onto the basketball court and he’d occasionally spot the redhead leaning out of the open window to watch him, giving him a quick wave every time their gazes met.

At the same time, however, Aomine held back in his playing so that he could show off his best stuff when they finally got to play one-on-one. It would ruin the surprise if he made it obvious now just how good he really was. So he mostly focused on working up a sweat and burning off the jetlag.

When he was tired enough to slow down, he noticed just how sweaty and hungry he had gotten, so he decided to call it a day and go take a quick shower before heading over to Kagami’s.

Back into the apartment, he ran into Tetsu, who was holding a napping Ryouta and trying to get a pot of rice going in the rice cooker. Aomine stopped to give him a hand, holding the sleepy toddler while he panted, still out of breath from playing for so long.

“I see you found the basketball court,” Tetsu said, the barest hint of a smile quirking his lips.

“Of course,” the tanned man replied with a tired grin, handing the kid back over to his father. “Gonna go take a shower.”

“Please do, I could smell you from across the room, and it is not a pleasant odor, Daiki-kun.”

Aomine simply rolled his eyes as he walked away, too tired to deal with Tetsu’s sass. Once in his bedroom suite, he stripped off his sweaty clothes and stepped into the shower, letting the scalding water wash away the evidence of his long basketball session from his skin.

He managed to avoid letting his thoughts drift to the redhead as he soaked, but had to escape the beautiful warmth of the shower to go back and rummage through his bags for his shampoo, conditioner and soap. Grumbling, he got back into the shower and quickly went through the routine of washing himself before stepping out and wrapping himself in a couple of plush towels Satsuki had left lying around for him.

Next came the dilemma of finding what to wear. First off, he didn’t want to dress overly nice, because that would be trying too hard for something that was _definitely not_ any kind of date, and because he didn’t really have many nice clothes with him to begin with. Secondly, he also didn’t want to dress like a total slob but his earlier quest for his basketball shoes had left the rest of his stuff in a crumpled mess, and he had no idea where anything was anymore.

By the end it took him twenty minutes longer than it usually would just to find some clothes and get dressed, and he finally shuffled out of his room wearing a clean pair of jeans, black t-shirt and a dark blue casual button-up tossed over it. He knew the shirt went well with his hair and his eyes (as Satsuki had said when she’d first wrestled him into trying it on at the store during her last trip to the US to visit him), so he felt confident he looked good.

Not that he needed to, because it totally was not a date. _At all._

“I’m headed out for supper, don’t wait up for me,” Aomine called out on his way past the kitchen, and if Tetsu was disappointed by his sudden departure he didn’t show it. For some reason Aomine didn’t want to reveal yet that it was the new neighbour he was going to go see, as if he wanted to keep the knowledge of the redhead to himself for as long as he could.

He got to the door and knocked, an excited smile already growing on his face. He couldn’t wait to see Kagami again; chatting with him had been so easy, and he was sure they could find something to talk about the whole night through. Besides, if anything they could always go on about basketball, and that was one topic Aomine would never grow tired of.

As he heard someone approach the door and unlock it, he briefly wondered if he should have brought something over, like wine or beer or dessert or whatever, but the train of thought vanished the moment the door opened and…

Aomine had to look down to spot the small, black-haired child with one eye peeking out from between his bangs. The kid shyly looked up at him and Aomine spotted the dark speck of a mole beside a dark eye that seemed to be considering him with a hint of distrust. Who the hell was this kid? Where was Kagami? Fuck, had he knocked on the wrong door?

“DADDY!” the kid suddenly yelled, startling Aomine not only from the volume but from the use of English. Yeah, maybe this was the wrong door…

Except that was Kagami stepping out from behind the corner with another kid in his arms, long purple hair hiding its face as it clung to the redhead’s neck in a tight hug. Kagami smiled when he spotted Aomine and came to stand behind the black-haired boy, placing a large hand on his shoulder.

“Aomine, you came!” he said brightly, and Aomine tried to smile back and hide the fact that he was internally screaming as his heart was slowly breaking to pieces. He should have expected this, braced himself for it, and felt like an absolute fool for having harboured any sort of hope.

Kagami, unaware of the disaster that was currently unfolding inside Aomine’s mind, continued: “These are my sons, Tatsuya and Atsushi. The food’s almost ready; come on in!”

Kagami turned and headed inside, and the black-haired boy finally stepped out of his way, so Aomine had no choice but to follow. As the kid locked the door behind him, he let out a long sigh, knowing he had a long, long evening ahead of him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aomine gets to spend an evening with the Kagami family and hopes he can survive dealing with both of the redhead's young sons. Unfortunately, one of them doesn't seem to be a big fan of Aomine being so close to his dad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aren't you guys lucky! 2 chapters in 2 days!  
> Haha just don't expect these kinds of updates to become the norm :P
> 
> Enjoy! This chapter is 100% domestic fluff!

Aomine sat down at the kitchen table in awkward silence as Kagami moved to put the purple-haired toddler in a high-chair. The black-haired kid was still giving him weird looks, so Aomine resolutely tried to avoid his gaze. Looking around, he saw a few boxes strewn about as evidence of the family’s recent move, but for the most part the kitchen looked spotless. Glancing out the window, Aomine realized that this must be from where Kagami had been watching him play as he could see the basketball court down below.

An image popped into his mind: Kagami, wearing a crisp white apron, is cooking something delicious in his kitchen. The window is open and the tempting odor wafts down below to where Aomine has paused in his basketball playing. Kagami leans out the window, and Aomine grins up at him as Kagami lets a drop of sauce fall down from his spoon into Aomine’s waiting mouth…

The blue-haired man jolts as he shakes himself from his strangely domestic fantasy. He could practically taste the sauce from his daydream, and for a moment he wondered what a curry made by Kagami would taste like.

“Hungry!” came a cry from the younger child, and Kagami chuckled as he ruffled the kid’s long purple locks.

“Patience, Atsushi, the food is almost ready,” the redhead said with a smile before turning to the stove, presumably to finish preparing the burgers. The smell of teriyaki sauce finally hit Aomine’s nose, and his mouth instantly began to water, his stomach growling as it reminded him of how long it had been since his meager bowl of cereal earlier that day.

“ _What are we eating, Daddy?_ ” the black-haired kid, whose name Aomine had already forgotten, asked Kagami in English. Aomine supressed the urge to smirk; it was clear the kid was trying to keep him out of the loop by using the foreign language, but Aomine hadn’t lived in the States for six years without picking up enough of the language to get by.

“ _We’re having teriyaki burgers, kiddo, ‘cause they’re the best_ ,” Aomine replied, smile growing wide at the evident surprise in the kid’s expression. _Hah, bet you didn’t see that one coming!_ Aomine thought triumphantly.

Kagami laughed and came back to the table, arms laden with platefuls of delicious-looking food. Atsushi made grabbing motions at the nearest one, but luckily he was strapped in well and couldn’t reach anything from his chair.

“Aomine-san is right, Tatsuya, we’re having teriyaki burgers,” Kagami said to the pouting kid as he started to put stuff on a plate and cut it up for Atsushi. “But he’s wrong about something else,” he added, and Aomine stopped grinning to glare at the redhead, who gave him a winning smirk. “Cheeseburgers are the best!” Aomine began to splutter indignantly.

“WHAT THE—you _did not_ just say that to my face!” Aomine growled, standing up and grabbing the redhead by the shirt. “Cheeseburgers don’t have shit on teriyaki burgers! For all I know, your cooking is crap and you just can’t taste the difference!”

Kagami’s eyes held the same fierce competitiveness as Aomine’s, but he quickly eased up and started to laugh, grabbing Aomine’s wrist to untangle his hand from his shirt.

“Oh, just you wait and see what my cooking is like, Ahomine,” Kagami said, eyes bright with mirth, and Aomine’s heart seized in his chest at the warmth of Kagami’s hand on his skin before his mind registered the subtle insult.

“Aho? Don’t call me an idiot, you, you… Bakagami!” Energy thrummed through Aomine’s veins, and despite his exhaustion and hunger, if the redhead challenged him he would be 100% down for a one-on-one match right then and there.

“Daddyyy, Aomine-san is saying bad words!” Tatsuya piped up, and the two men took a step back as they remembered their surroundings. Aomine momentarily panicked, worried that Kagami would kick him out for being a bad influence on his children—something Satsuki was sure to do in the near future, considering how bad he already was at filtering himself around Ryouta, and that kid was a damn parrot.

“Bad words means no dessert,” Atsushi added quietly before stuffing another handful of burger bites into his mouth.

“Ah, um, that’s right! No dessert for Aomine-san until he cleans up his language,” said Kagami, sitting down and giving Aomine a pointed look. The tanned man rolled his eyes and went back to his own spot, sinking down into the chair.

Deep down though, he was relieved that Kagami hadn’t made a bigger fuss than that, but was also confused by the smug look Tatsuya was giving him. What was with that kid? Was he really trying to make Aomine look bad on purpose? Shit, things would be even tougher with Kagami if one of his kids was trying to make Aomine’s life difficult.

Grumbling, Aomine assembled his first burger and took a huge bite before immediately having to suppress a moan at how fucking delicious the damn thing was. Part of it was probably just the fact that it was so nostalgic being able to taste his favourite dish again after so long, but this was still the best damn teriyaki burger Aomine had ever tasted.

Aomine glanced up in time to see Kagami watching him, the biggest, smuggest grin on his dumb face. Feeling childish, Aomine flicked a piece of bread at Kagami, laughing when it hit him square between his weird eyebrows. It bounced off and landed in Atsushi’s food tray, and Aomine barked out a laugh when the toddler grabbed it and gobbled it up right away. He heard a giggle coming from his right, but by the time he looked over at Tatsuya the kid was pointedly looking away from him, mouth recently occupied with food.

Aomine smiled as he sat back and continued eating the best meal he had had in years. It took a lot to restrain himself from letting out a huge burp afterwards, and for some reason he felt like he still had to win over or somehow impress Kagami and his kids. His usual rude, carefree attitude had been fine back in the States, but now… if he was going to be mostly hanging out with friends who all had young kids for the foreseeable future, it was about time he tried to clean up his act.

The most entertaining part of the meal had been to watch Kagami shove burger after burger into his mouth. Aomine himself had been starving after all that basketball, and he’d eaten a fair amount, but it was nothing compared to how much food Kagami could tuck away.

“For someone who claims to love cheeseburgers better, you sure ate a whole lot of teriyaki ones,” Aomine said with a chuckle. “Do you have like a black hole for a stomach or something?”

“No, I eat a normal amount,” said Kagami with a soft laugh. “Right, Atsushi?” The purple-haired toddler nodded vigorously, his own mouth still full of food.

“Hah, I can see where the kid gets it from,” said Aomine, standing up and grabbing a few empty plates. The least he could do was try to score some points by doing the dishes. And it wasn’t like Aomine didn’t know how to clean up after himself—he had lived on his own for six years after all. As he stood at the sink and started filling it with water, however, he missed the odd, almost saddened look that flashed through Kagami’s eyes before the redhead went back to his usual happy demeanor.

“Thanks Aomine, just try not to break anything, ok?”

“I know how to do the dishes, Bakagami!”

~~~

The rest of the evening was… frighteningly domestic for Aomine. After the burgers, the kids had gobbled up some kind of pudding dessert Kagami had made—Aomine was not surprised to see Atsushi was a _huge_ fan of sweets and practically inhaled his portion—before the four of them retired to the couch for a movie, Aomine having awkwardly hovered around, unsure if he was meant to stay, until Kagami grabbed him by the arm and dragged him over to the living room, the kids in tow.

Friday nights were movie nights for them, and Tatsuya was picking this week, so they all ended up watching _Up_ squished together on the couch after having removed the rest of the boxes that were lingering there. Aomine ended up with a lap full of Atsushi as Tatsuya cuddled up to his dad for the duration of the film.

Somehow, the first few minutes of the film were the saddest, most heartbreaking thing Aomine has ever watched, and he has to fight back tears by the end of the sequence. Atsushi is a bit too young to quite understand, so he had been spared, but Tatsuya and Kagami are on the verge of bawling their eyes out. If he hadn’t been himself so affected, Aomine surely would have laughed at the sight.

They ended up taking a break to blow their noses and wipe their eyes before continuing the movie. It ended up being pretty good, and Aomine was just as entertained by the movie itself as by Atsushi’s excited wriggling every time the dog talked.

“Daddy, can I dress as Russell for Halloween?” Tatsuya asked hopefully, and Kagami nodded, prompting the kid to tackle his dad into a hug, knocking the two of them over to the ground.

“Oh no, you’ve got me!” Kagami fake-cried, grinning up at Aomine, who was struggling to get a proper hold of the sleepy toddler so he could try to stand up and go pee. Tatsuya giggled as he sat on his dad, legs keeping his arms stuck at his sides. “Aomine, you’re going to have to save me!”

The blue-haired man hesitated. He already had an unsteady grip on the youngest child, and wasn’t sure the other kid would react well to Aomine trying to pick him up. He figured the safest course of action was to leave Kagami to his fate and try to get Atsushi to bed so he himself could get to the washroom.

“Hey Kagami, which way to Atsushi’s room?” Aomine tossed back over his shoulder as he started walking out of the room. Kagami pouted, displeased that the other man didn’t seem to want to play along.

“Just drop him on my bed in the master suite, he doesn’t like cribs so he sleeps with me,” Kagami answered, still stuck under the older child. “You seriously just gonna abandon me here, Ahomine?”

“Yup,” he answered, making the “p” pop as me smacked his lips. “Yo kid,” he began, looking down at Tatsuya, who had actually decided to meet his gaze, albeit with a challenging look on his face. “Is your dad ticklish?”

“Yes…?” came the hesitant reply.

“Then you should probably take advantage of that while you’ve got him at your mercy,” Aomine stated with a wink. As he walked down the hall towards the master suite, he couldn’t help but smile at the sound of Kagami’s gasping laughter and pleas for his son to stop his vicious tickling assault that followed them from the living room.

Aomine padded down the hall until he found the right room, flicking on the lights as he stepped inside. Looking around, he just had to smile. The room was barely unpacked but it already oozed _Kagami_ : basketball posters just waiting to be hung, a pile of cookbooks in the corner, framed photographs on the dresser, a bunch of kid’s clothes waiting to be folded, and a nest of purple blankets with a chocolate bar-shaped pillow that had to be Atsushi’s spot on the massive king-sized bed.

Aomine walked over, careful not to step on anything, and gently deposited the kid in the middle of his blankets. Not sure how the toddler liked to sleep, he simply draped one of the blankets over him and hoped it would be okay.

He went into the washroom to take a quick piss, but after washing his hands he got distracted by the array of bottles strewn about on the counter. He opened one and took a whiff, closing his eyes with a sigh as he recognized the scent of what he’d smelled on Kagami earlier as the two had sat right up against each other during the movie.

Getting himself back under control, he quickly snapped the bottle closed and, after checking himself out in the mirror, left the bathroom. He paused as he passed by Atsushi, smiling at the small hands grasping the blankets the purple-haired child had cocooned himself in. He gave his head a quick pat before leaving the room and closing the door with a soft click.

He headed back towards the living room but stopped when he heard the gentle, low rumble of Kagami’s voice as he talked to Tatsuya. Aomine’s heart did another leap in his chest, and he had to lean against the while as he fought to control the butterflies in his stomach.

It had only been one day, one freaking day, and he was already in too deep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, my tumblr is [shooponthemoon](http://shooponthemoon.tumblr.com/)  
> Feel free to drop by and send me a prompt, talk aokaga headcanons, just say hi, whatever you want ^u^
> 
> My birthday was great, thank you for all the lovely comments on the first chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aomine finally gets to play one-on-one with Kagami.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well clearly I am still terrible at getting to the point, so this chapter has less events in it than originally planned, but oh well, it's probably fine
> 
> I'm pretty tired now haha but I just want to say, I've had a good day today, and I don't have many of those so it felt really nice  
> also your comments really help keep me motivated for my writing! thank you so much!

The only reason Aomine _didn’t_ try to murder Ryouta for breaking into his room and jumping on his bed (and thus on Aomine himself) early Tuesday morning was because the ex-NBA player was already awake, too excited by the prospect of _finally_ getting to play against Kagami later that afternoon to be able to sleep in as he usually did. Plus, the jet lag was starting to wear off and he was slipping into a more normal sleeping pattern, though normal for Aomine still meant about one or two catnaps a day, regardless of how many hours of sleep he got at night.

“Aominecchi! Wake up, wake up, wake up!” Ryouta screeched excitedly, and though Aomine tried to frown and grumble at how annoying the kid was being, he couldn’t wipe the dumb grin off his face no matter how hard he tried. Plus, Ryouta had perfected his puppy-eyed look and Aomine thought he was impossibly cute even when being the most annoying thing in the world.

“What’s up, Ryouta?” the blue-haired man asked as he sat up and stretched, the blond tumbling down from where he was perched on Aomine’s chest to his legs.

“Papa’s making pancakes!” he said as Aomine picked him up and set him on the floor, before slowly padding over to the washroom.

“That sounds fu—uhhh, awesome,” he told the kid, wincing as he only barely managed to avoid adding the expletive. “Hey, how about you go start counting how many pancakes Tetsu’s already made while I go wash up, ok?” By now Aomine knew that he had to distract Ryouta with random other tasks or challenges, no matter how small or dumb, or else he would follow him anywhere, even into the bathroom when he was trying to take a piss or a shower.

“Ok!” the blond chirped before running off towards the kitchen. Aomine let out a sigh of relief.

Breakfast went about as well as one would expect: the food was fine, Aomine drank the last cup of Tetsu’s favourite brand of orange juice and received an elbow in the ribs for it, and Satsuki had to rush off to work immediately afterwards, leaving the two men to spend a half-hour trying to scrub the sticky syrup off of Ryouta and the spot where the kid had been sitting at the table.

Luckily Tetsu was off that day, so Aomine was able to take a nap on the couch afterwards, Nigou’s crushing weight on his legs, while his light blue-haired friend entertained his son with his toys. At some point Aomine felt another warm body crawl up and snuggle its way into the space between his chest and the backrest. When he cracked an eye open and he spotted the gold of Ryouta’s hair, he relaxed once again and fell back asleep.

Tetsu shook his head at the two before quietly picking up Ryouta’s toys that had spread across the living room and then heading back into the kitchen to get some rice started for lunch. Though he didn’t mind being a part-time stay-at-home dad, the short man sometimes felt that he was babysitting _two_ children (plus a dog) now that his friend was back from America. Fortunately, as far as food was concerned, Aomine had no complaints as long as Satsuki kept well away from the kitchen while it was being made.

Lunch was a simple affair, much less messy than breakfast had been, and after cleaning up all four of them got ready to go out, Tetsu to take Ryouta and Nigou out on a long walk and Aomine to go play basketball with Kagami—though he hadn’t told his friend that he was playing _against_ anybody, just that he _was_ playing. For some reason, Aomine still felt a small, selfish desire to keep Kagami all to himself for just a little while longer.

After Tetsu, Ryouta and Nigou left, Aomine spent a few minutes pacing around, debating whether he should go knock on Kagami’s door for the two of them to go down together, or to just go to the court himself and wait for the redhead to show up. Aomine had no idea what the guy did on his days off, so he wasn’t sure if the kids would be around or if he also had a sitter like Tetsu and Satsuki did.

In the end he decided to go burn off some of his nervousness—him, Aomine Daiki, nervous!—by shooting a few hoops before Kagami arrived. He also realized that he wasn’t yet ready to face an elevator ride with Kagami, with or sans the kids. That Friday evening at his place had left Aomine emotionally rattled, and for the time being he felt more at ease meeting Kagami at his one true home: the basketball court.

However, he had only been down there for a couple of minutes when the redhead suddenly appeared, his warm tone and kind greeting enough to make Aomine weak in the knees for a moment as he got his first glimpse of the beautiful man.

Aomine realized that the sound of his dribbling and shooting baskets must have brought Kagami down. Looking up, the window to his kitchen was wide open once again, and Aomine imaged him standing there just minutes before, hearing and seeing the blue-haired man appear on the court before excitedly rushing to grab his things and come down. Isn’t it wonderful how the Kagami in his imagination wants him just as much as Aomine wants the real Kagami? His basketball tucked under one arm, the tanned man sighed before scrubbing at his face with his free hand.

“Aomine? You ready to play?” Kagami asked, head tilting in slight concern. _Fuck, he looks cute like that!_ thought Aomine.

“Of course, Bakagami!” he huffed, tossing the ball hard at the other’s chest. Though the other man gave a quick look of surprise, he caught the ball with ease. “Real question is: you ready to lose?” Aomine grinned wildly as Kagami’s eyes flashed with a fiery, competitive spirit.

“Lose? To you? Never.”

They played for hours. At first, Aomine held himself back a little, slowly revealing his moves one by one and entertaining himself with Kagami’s reactions. Granted, he didn’t have to go _easy_ on the guy, not at all in fact, because hell, Kagami was fucking good! But he relished the look on the redhead’s face each time he pulled a crazy stunt just to win the rally. He loved knowing that in that moment, the world around them meant nothing: it was just the two of them and the game.

They weren’t quite even in skill as Kagami seemed a bit rusty and Aomine was just coming back from being on a championship-winning NBA team, but Kagami’s raw jumping power and American-style playing were such a welcome challenge for Aomine that he couldn’t help but grin like a maniac all game long. He’d expected to only be able to play against Japanese-style players now that he was back home, but Kagami had clearly grown up with American street ball. Aomine had encountered a lot of players who used that style while playing the States, and he absolutely loved to pit himself against them and test their skill.

They only stopped because both Kagami and Aomine collapsed at the same time, their legs unable to hold them up any longer: Kagami due to overusing his extreme jumps, and Aomine because his bad knee gave out for a moment and he decided that lying on the ground was much nicer than trying to get back up.

Aomine lay, limbs spread out, panting harshly. He could hear Kagami breathing just as hard beside him, and when he turned his head to get a glimpse of the redhead, he lost his breath for a moment at the exhausted yet utterly content look on his face. When he opened his eyes, red gaze meeting blue, the two shared wide smile, and Aomine wished this moment could last forever.

“Shit, you’re good,” Kagami finally managed to say between heaving breaths. Aomine gave a satisfied smirk.

“The only one who can beat me is me,” he said smugly.

“Now now, Daiki, we all know that isn’t quite true anymore, is it?” a voice called out, interrupting their moment. Aomine looked up to spot a group of his friends, who had all probably been watching them play for quite a while now, though he and Kagami had been too lost in their game to notice they had an audience.

“Oh, hey Akashi, long time no see,” Aomine said tiredly, but still managed to smile up at the shorter man. “Whacha doing here out of the office? Satsuki keeps saying you’re a workaholic… So what, are you getting nostalgic about our good old high school days, had to come remind yourself of how amazing I am?”

“Dai-chan, it’s almost supper time! Have you been playing all afternoon?” his pink-haired friend called out, her blond toddler in her arms. As Aomine sat up, he noted the grass stains on Ryouta and Tetsu’s clothes and the leaves and twigs tangled in Nigou’s fur, and guessed that the combined energy of both the large dog and easily excitable child had proven to be a bit much for Tetsu to keep under control. Aomine laughed as he finally stood up completely to go greet his friends.

“Tetsuya and Satsuki have been kind enough to invite me over for dinner,” gave Akashi as an explanation of his presence. “We’ve had a stressful past week at the office, but the deal went in our favour, so an evening relaxing with friends is quite deserved.”

“Sounds good,” said Aomine, before turning back to Kagami, who strangely hadn’t come any closer and was giving Nigou the stink eye. “What the hell Bakagami, are you scared of dogs or something?”

“Shut up Ahomine!” the redhead explained, an embarrassed blush tainting his cheeks and making Aomine himself flush at seeing him behave so adorably. Turning away, he figure it was about time to introduce his friend to the others. He was happy they had seen how good Kagami was at basketball, and was sure he’d easily be accepted by the group.

“Guys, this is—”

“Kagamicchi!” shouted Ryouta, finally wriggling out of the arms of his mother, who’d been trying unsuccessfully to wipe the grassy residue from his face and clothes. The blond ran over to the redhead, who eagerly swept him up into a hug despite his exhaustion and the strain it put on his tired leg muscles.

“Hey little guy! I haven’t seen you in a while!” Kagami said as Aomine watched on, mouth practically hanging open in shock. “Kuroko, nice to see you again. Sorry I didn’t come by earlier or anything, we’ve been busy with the move…”

“It’s no trouble, Kagami-kun. Are the boys settling in well?” Tetsu asked, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he took in Aomine’s reaction to him already knowing his one-on-one opponent.

“Yeah, they’re really loving the place. Thanks for the recommendation, by the way, it was great to find out an apartment had finally opened up, and on your floor to boot!” Kagami laughed, and Aomine felt like pulling out his hair. Damn Tetsu!

As if reading his thoughts, the light blue-haired man turned to Aomine, still sporting a ghost of a smile on his lips.

“I see you’ve already met our new neighbour, Daiki-kun. Did you know? Kagami and I have been friends since after high school; we were on the same basketball team in university… you could almost say he took up your position as my light once you left.”

“Whatever, Tetsu,” grumbled Aomine, not a fan of the whole light-shadow analogy, at least not when Tetsu used it to annoy him. He turned to Kagami, wanting the redhead’s attention back onto him. “That was a great game Bakagami, even though you’re leagues away from being able to beat me.”

“Next time I’ll beat you for sure, just you watch!” Kagami challenged. Had they not been so exhausted, the two would have gotten fired up all over again.

“Hey, you think we have enough space for a few more extras for supper?” asked Aomine, turning back to the rest of his friends. “Or more like, would we have enough food for Bakagami’s bottomless stomach?”

“Hey!” Kagami gave Aomine a glare. “If it’s alright with you, Kuroko, Momoi, I can come over and help prepare the food and stuff if you watch over the kids. I’ll just have to grab a quick shower first.”

“Of course, Kagamin!” said Satsuki with a smile. She gathered up Ryouta in her arms once again and the group started heading back inside. On the way, Kagami accosted Aomine and tossed a tired arm over the blue-haired man’s shoulders, Aomine feeling the warmth of the other man’s touch seep into his tired muscles.

“How the hell did you get that good?” Kagami asked.

“Weeelll, you know how I said I just got back last week?”

“Yeah, where were you?”

“In the US. Playing for the NBA.” Aomine savoured Kagami’s shocked and excited reaction.

“No way, you’re shitting me! Wow… but I guess that explains a lot, like the English, and the crazy basketball skills… That’s really sweet man, you must have had so much fun.”

“Yeah, it was great,” he said with a fond smile. Knowing the question was coming, he added: “Had to stop because of elbow and knee problems. Didn’t want to bust my limbs completely trying to keep playing, so I came home.” Kagami nodded knowingly.

“It was probably for the best then. Besides, you got to meet me!” he added with a bright smile, and Aomine’s chest tightened as his heart leapt with happy excitement.

“Yeah, definitely for the best.”

~~~

Aomine had gone to take a quick shower in his room while Tetsu went to give himself and Ryouta a good scrub. Kagami got started on organizing the ingredients for supper, Akashi lending a hand, while Satsuki went to pick up Kagami’s kids at the sitter downstairs—turns out both families would be using the same one from now on, though when the summer break ended Tatsuya would be back in school.

After his shower, Aomine changed into something light and comfy, but still clean, which could not be said about most of the clothes strewn about the floor. He’d get Tetsu to show him how the washing machine worked in the morning, and probably ask Satsuki to take him shopping for new stuff on the weekend, though she’d most likely just end up buying more stuff for herself then for him, not that Aomine really minded.

Feeling a sudden rush of exhaustion, Aomine decided to slip into bed for a quick nap. He fell asleep quickly, only surfacing from his daze when a tall figure entered his room, asking if it could borrow some clean clothes. Aomine nodded sleepily and gave a haphazard sweeping gesture with his arm at the general vicinity of where his cleanest clothes should be. The figure huffed a laugh, and as Aomine drifted off again, he swore he felt a warm hand ruffle his hair, though it must have been part of a dream.

Hours later—or maybe minutes, he couldn’t quite tell when he was asleep—Aomine was woken by the irritating feeling of water droplets falling onto his face. Scrunching his eyes even tighter, he swept a hand at the area, hoping the sensation would stop, but just as he began to relax again, a fat droplet landed right at the corner of his mouth, slipping down between his lips and onto his tongue.

When he finally opened his eyes, his vision was filled with red: red hair, red eyes, _Kagami_.

His hair was still wet, presumably from the shower, and was the source of the water that had been steadily falling onto Aomine’s face. The tanned man frowned again at the interruption of his nap, while his body started to heat up involuntarily from the closeness of the redhead’s own body, his nice, muscled, _shirtless_ body…

“Whadja waan?” Aomine tried to pronounce as he forced his tired body to sit up, leaning on one arm for support.

“Sorry, I found a shirt and some shorts earlier, but I was wondering if I could borrow some underwear?” Kagami asked, and Aomine was ever so thankful he was still half asleep and his brain going on auto-pilot, because otherwise he would have shut down completely.

“Yeah, second drawer,” he answered, gesturing with his other hand.

“Thanks. You can go back to sleep, I’ll come wake you up when food is ready.”

“No, nooo, I can, uh, help…” Aomine mumbled as he tried to get up, but had to stop as his muscles started to protest. He gave a low groan when his bad elbow made a loud popping noise, and he slowly eased his weight off of it and sank back into bed.

“Just sleep, Aho,” Kagami said, a hint of fondness in his voice. And sleep he did.

~~~

When Aomine finally woke up, the house was dark and silent. He made his way to the kitchen, where a covered plate of food had a note with his name on it:

_Ahomine,_

_I’m mad you completely ignored me when I tried to get you up for dinner, but at the same time it’s good you were able to get some rest. For some NBA bigshot, you really need to work on your stamina! Left some food for you. Sorry we couldn’t stay, the boys and I really needed to get some sleep. Akashi got a call and had to leave, he says it was nice to see you again. I think Kuroko and his gang are about to hit the sack as well, they look pretty worn out. You should come meet up with us at Tora No Uta restaurant tomorrow for lunch, and we can make up for the conversation you missed while you were sleeping._

_Also, drink lots of water! Dehydration is bad, and you seem like the kind of idiot that doesn’t think about those kinds of things._

_See you tomorrow,_

_Kagami_

Aomine sat for a while, reading and rereading the note, until he was nudged out of his thoughts by Nigou, who came to rest his giant head in Aomine’s lap. He huffed a laugh and, shaking his head, put down the note and finally dug into the food, which was no longer warm but still tasted heavenly. He could have gone to the microwave to warm it up, but he was too lazy and Nigou had already made himself comfortable, so there was no point in moving.

When he finished, he let Nigou lick off his plate, and he sat there for a while, absentmindedly petting the dog’s head. He was a bit anxious about tomorrow, since it frankly felt like another non-date type of scenario all over again, especially with the use of “us”… was it he and Tetsu, or he and his kids, or “us” as in everyone? Who knew… but it was clear he couldn’t hope for it to be just him and Kagami, alone.

One thing he couldn’t deny—one thing that kept him up half the night as he replayed the contents of the letter over and over in his mind—was the evident affection Kagami had put into his letter, the clear fact that Kagami did truly _care_ about him.

And it scared Aomine, to know that, because he had no idea where he truly stood with the guy. Friends in a day, close friends within a week? Did that even happen? Were some people just that compatible?

Not to mention, Aomine had no idea how to deal with the sudden, deep crush he was developing on the redhead. There was no way of knowing Kagami’s side of things—hell, he knew so little of Kagami’s past as of yet, it was useless to speculate about anything.

Aomine hoped that tomorrow he’d have a chance to chat more with the guy, get to know him better, and possibly understand what exactly they were to each other. But above all, he knew that he could do nothing that could possibly risk destroying this rapidly blossoming friendship they shared, no matter what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my tumblr: [shooponthemoon](http://shooponthemoon.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Like this fic? Want to help spread it's visibility on tumblr? Please like and reblog [this post](http://shooponthemoon.tumblr.com/post/119252557059/aokaga-fic-the-third-storey-window)!
> 
> Thank you! <3


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lunch at the restaurant—but where the hell is Kagami?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By now I should get used to never fitting as much as I'd like into a chapter... but I keep surprising myself every time  
> Meaning this, if I actually finish it, will be much, MUCH longer than I ever intended haha
> 
> More fluff, lots of Aomine being a dork. Also for a guy who says he's bad with kids, well... there's some things he seems to be doing ok with ;P
> 
> Enjoy! I made myself very hungry writing this haha

The nap and late-night dinner had messed up his sleep schedule all over again, so by the time Aomine woke up the next day it was already time to head out for lunch. Since he’d missed seeing Tetsu that morning, there was no way of knowing if he was filling in for a teacher today or if he had the day off and had taken Nigou for walk before going to the restaurant.

It made Aomine laugh while trying to think of who liked to demand the most of Tetsu’s time: his diva-like toddler or his oversized puppy. The high school version of Satsuki could probably have given them both a run for their money: she had been quite clingy back then at the height of her crush for the blue-haired shadow, but both boys had secretly found it endearing in their own way.

Changing into what was probably the last clean outfit he had, Aomine got dressed and quickly gobbled down a light bowl of cereal, nothing too big so he could save his appetite for lunch. He was a bit remorseful that he’d let himself get addicted to American breakfast cereals while in the States, now craving the sugary brands Tetsu hadn’t yet managed to find at any of the local grocery stores.

He did a quick search for the place on his phone and decided to walk over, seeing as the GPS said it was only 15 or so minutes away. He snorted as he pondered the imagery that the restaurant’s name, Tora no Uta, invoked: the tiger’s song. As if tigers could even sing! _Tiger’s roar would have been more appropriate,_ he thought with a huff.

It had been hard to resist tucking his basketball under his arm as he left the apartment, but when the large restaurant finally came into view, he was glad he’d ditched the ball and had actually thought to put on somewhat decent clothes as the place looked almost… _fancy_.

Surreptitiously brushing off his pants in case of any wayward crumbs, Aomine followed a group of high-class businessmen into the place, keeping his shoulders hunched and trying not to gape at how nice the interior was.

The restaurant was definitely classy, but without being off-putting in the least. It had a fresh openness to it, though Aomine could spot off to the left an area where there seemed to be small private rooms behind sliding doors. The rest of the place was reminiscent of American restaurants, with spacious dining booths forming a “U” shape along the walls and smaller tables for two in the middle. There was space behind the booths near the far wall for waiters to pass from the kitchen, whose entrance was in the back right corner from where Aomine stood, to the rooms on the left, without having to weave through the rest of the dining room. Aomine could spot the sign for the washrooms tucked into the back left corner, and filed the information away for later, should he need it.

As the group in front of him chatted with the _maître d’_ , Aomine scanned the restaurant for any sign of Kagami, figuring the big redhead would be the easiest to spot, and he was the only other person Aomine knew for sure was going to be there.

Unfortunately, he still hadn’t managed to find him by the time the _maître d’_ had shown the businessmen to their table and returned, her welcoming smile not enough to distract from the fact that she was most definitely assessing him—Aomine felt a chill down his back, the treatment being eerily familiar to how Satsuki used to size all of the basketball players up, mining for data.

“Table for one?” the short brunette asked, and Aomine almost panicked.

“Uh,” he replied, graceful as ever. “I’m, uh, supposed to meet someone here? For lunch,” he clarified, though it was hardly necessary. The _maître d’_ gave him an amused grin and opened a ledger on her desk.

“Can I have their name? I can see if they made an appointment or if they’re already seated; we take down a name for every group that comes in.”

“Oh, uh, Kagami then,” Aomine said, feeling a bit sheepish and out of place. The _maître d’_ s weird grin didn’t help put him at ease, and she gave a quick look at the ledger but shook her head in apology. There was a glint in her eyes, almost as if she was messing with him, but Aomine couldn’t quite tell, nor would he know why.

“I’m sorry, there are no reservations or tables seated under that name.” Aomine almost swore, feeling embarrassed and wondering if he’d somehow managed to make it before the other man, despite his own tardiness. A sudden thought saved him from panicking.

“Um, maybe try Kuroko? I’m not sure if he was supposed to be joining us, but it’s worth a look,” Aomine said, knowing full well that the sneaky shadow could have easily passed unnoticed during his earlier sweep of the dining room if he’d wanted to, just to make a fool out of Aomine (and probably as punishment for sleeping in so late).

The _maître d’_ looker through the ledger again, and this time gave Aomine an assenting nod when she was done.

“This way please, follow me,” she said, grabbing a menu for him before leading him through the dining area to a booth almost hidden away in the far right corner, right next to the sweeping doors that lead to the kitchen. Aomine cursed Tetsu under his breath for always being so damn hard to find. He could tell he was at the right table immediately given the screeching welcome Ryouta offered the moment he was fully in view.

“Thanks,” he mumbled to the _maître d’_ as she deposited his menu on the table. She turned and left after giving everyone a departing smile.

Only then did Aomine notice the two figures sitting opposite of Tetsu and his son, though their small stature was mostly to blame: Tatsuya and Atsushi, who were both sitting quietly and drawing with crayons on sheets of white paper.

Tatsuya glanced up and gave him a short stare as the tanned man sat down, carefully sliding Atsushi into his lap so the kid could actually reach the table properly and keep drawing… whatever orange monstrosities those were supposed to be. Aomine gave the older kid a polite greeting, but otherwise ignore his somewhat cold attitude and focused on Tetsu, who was predictably sipping on a vanilla milkshake, his other hand preventing Ryouta from spilling his water all over himself and the children’s drawings as the blond took big gulps of his drink.

“Had any trouble finding us, Daiki-kun?” Tetsu asked with that tiny, knowing smile of his, and Aomine growled because now he was certain that his so-called “best friend” had picked this secluded table on purpose. Aomine gently covered Atsushi’s ears and leaned in, Tetsu quickly picking up the hint and covering Ryouta’s ears as well.

“Damn you, Tetsu!” Aomine hissed, almost seething. “And where the hell is Kagami? I bet you assholes did it on purpose, first with this damn restaurant, and then the seating!”

“Please calm down, Daiki-kun,” Tetsu simply said, composed as ever. Figuring the tall man’s rant was over, he removed his hands from Ryouta’s ears and went back to sipping at his milkshake. “Kagami will join us soon enough, no need to worry. And I quite believe you will enjoy this place: the menu has a strong western influence and is sure to be to your taste.”

“Tch,” Aomine grumbled, finally letting go of Atsushi with a gentle pat to the head. The purple-haired toddler only paused in his activity long enough to change his abused orange crayon for a fresh blue one, paying no mind to Aomine whatsoever.

The blue-haired man sighed as he sat back and let himself relax. His stomach was starting to grumble insistently, so he reluctantly picked up the menu and started to leaf through it. Surprisingly enough, for a place as classy as this, the prices weren’t as bad as he might have anticipated, especially considering how appetizing the dishes looked in the few pictures provided. Aomine flipped over to the western-style sandwiches, wanting something filling but quick to chow down on.

His gaze leapt to a surprising entry on the page: Montreal-style smoked meat sandwich. Already Aomine could feel himself salivating, his stomach giving a loud grumble of approval.

He had only visited the Canadian city a handful of times in the past couple of years or so, mostly as impromptu road trips with a teammate who was from the area after having games in Toronto. The guy was a big fan of the _Canadiens_ and even brought Aomine to a couple of their games, insisting that the hockey team in Toronto was not worth watching at all.

The most memorable part of the trips for Aomine, however, were the daily lunch trips to local bistros, devouring bite after bite of the Montreal specialty. He had only ever found one place in Toronto that had satisfactory replicas of the meat-loaded sandwich, and he was curious to see if the one here would be any good.

Aomine had been so engrossed in his food memories that he hadn’t noticed the waiter approach their table, his cat-like smile a permanent fixture on his face. He was startled out of his daze when the kid in his lap excitedly asked for spaghetti and meatballs with a glass of apple juice (to be delivered in a sippy cup like his previous drink, of course).

Aomine placed his order for his Montreal-style smoked meat sandwich and homefries, hardly paying attention afterwards as Tatsuya ordered some fancy burger with sweet potato fries and Ryouta asked if he could have the cheesy pasta with shapes in it, like last time. He’d clearly missed hearing Tetsu’s order as the waiter then smiled and left, promising to be back soon with their drinks.

He sat watching Atsushi draw, idly wondering where the hell Kagami was. Tetsu was clearly not about to tell him anything, since withholding this kind of information was one of his favourite ways to annoy Aomine, and he did _not_ want to let himself be played like that _again_. So he sat, silent and unmoving except for the times Atsushi would tug on his sleeve and have Aomine pass him another crayon.

The drinks came quickly, and their food soon after. He was surprised at the fast service, but then again the place wasn’t packed, just busy. He figured it was probably more of a popular supper place anyways, given the types of dishes on the menu and the price.

As soon as the plate of spaghetti was set in front of him and Atsushi, Aomine knew he had to take action in order to avoid a total disaster, especially when the child eating it was in _his_ lap; he had seen the aftermath of spaghetti at Tetsu’s place, and had no desire to be removing chunks of tomato or ground beef from the kid’s hair or either of their clothing.

Using an elbow to keep Atsushi away from the plate, Aomine quickly grabbed the kid’s knife and fork and started cutting the pasta and meatballs into manageable-sized bits. He also took a second to tuck a few napkins in the toddler’s shirt collar to give his shirt some form of protection.

He was temporarily distracted by the arrival of his own food, his mouth instantly watering at the sight of the giant, meaty sandwich set before him. He shifted the kid in the lap before settling in to eat, using his right hand to hold his sandwich and the fork in his left to feed Atsushi, the kid using his tiny hands to guide the fork from the plate to his mouth and back. Tatsuya helped by passing over his juice when the kid demanded it, and sometimes offering him a fry or two as well.

As engrossed as Aomine was in the deliciousness of his meal, he did not miss the sound of a camera click coming from across the table. Instantly suspicious, he raised his head with a frown, but all he saw was Tetsu trying to pose with a messy Ryouta for a selfie, no doubt to send a picture to Satsuki, who, as Tetsu had said disappointingly, was too busy to make it today.

In hardly no time at all, Aomine found himself with an empty place, a full and satisfied stomach, and a lapful of toddler demanding dessert. Once Ryouta joined in there was no stopping them, so the next time the waiter came by they ordered some ice cream for the kids and a few different flavours of mini cheese cakes for him and Tetsu to share.

“Oh, and compliments to the chef, that was the best damn sandwich like that I’ve had outside of Montreal,” Aomine said before sitting back and letting out a satisfied burp. Tatsuya gave him an unimpressed look, which Satsuki definitely would have shared had she been here, but Ryouta just laughed, and Atsushi looked up with a smile before demanding he give him the purple crayon.

“Of course, I will pass along your words,” said the waiter with a cheschire-like grin. “Your dessert shall be here soon.”

“Man, Tetsu, how was your food? Looked good too,” said Aomine sleepily, scratching at his head.

“Excellent as always. This restaurant is a favourite of ours,” Tetsu replied with a cryptic smile.

“Well I can see why,” said Aomine with a laugh. “With this kind of food, I wouldn’t eat anywhere else… though mind you, those teriyaki burgers Kagami made are still the best meal I’ve ever had in my life. Bet he cooks even better than the chef here.”

“I seriously doubt that,” a familiar voice said with a happy tone. Aomine whirled around to see Kagami standing right beside their table, for some reason holding a tray with all of their desserts that he gently put down in front of them. Aomine blushed, embarrassed that Kagami had overheard him complimenting his skills so openly. Kagami sat down in front of him, Ryouta cuddling up to his dad to give the tall man room.

“What do you mean, Bakagami? And where the he—eck have you been?” Aomine retorted, once again having only just avoided using a worse term while the kids were all ears.

“Aho, where do you think I’ve been? Never seen a chef’s uniform before?” the redhead said with a huge grin, spreading out his arms and calling attention to his pristine white uniform shirt.

“What?!” Aomine sputtered, and Tatsuya starting giggling beside him.

“Kagami-kun cannot be better than the chef, because Kagami-kun _is_ the chef, Daiki-kun,” Tetsu explain slowly, as if to a child, clearly amused at Aomine’s surprised reaction.

“Welcome to my restaurant, dumbass,” Kagami said with a satisfied grin, resting his elbows on the table as the kids started digging into their ice cream, the revelation nothing new to them.

Aomine’s mind reeled from it, however, he couldn’t help but imagine Kagami in a full professional kitchen, dressed in a white coat that contrasted his red hair so well, barking out orders while cooking up a storm, and Aomine knew that a more perfect vision could not exist and that _this_ was exactly where Kagami belonged. Besides, this restaurant already _screamed_ of Kagami, from the food to the very name of the place. _So fitting._

For a moment Aomine felt like he couldn’t breathe; the inside of his chest burned where Kagami’s light had pierced his heart, and his very being _ached_ with the desire to bask in the other man’s brilliant smile for the rest of his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you're wondering, I'm not from Montreal, but I have lots of friends who are haha. I'm from Ottawa, which is close, only like 2, maybe 2.5 hours away, kind of 1/3 of the way from Montreal to Toronto.  
> If you ever visit, you have to try the sandwich. It's a must! We can buy the sliced meat cold from delis around here, but it's just not the same... *shakes fist*
> 
> (Also please don't come fight me over hockey, I enjoy watching the sport but I'm a very casual Habs and Sens fan at most.)
> 
> My tumblr is [shooponthemoon](http://shooponthemoon.tumblr.com/) if you want to come drop by to swap Aokaga headcanons or leave a writing prompt/suggestion/au idea!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Restaurant conversations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *cries* I'm sorry this took so long, I've been in a bit of slump because of reasons, and even on days I wanted to write my mom kept having me help her clean the kitchen :c  
> oh and I've become obsessed with Fire Emblem: Awakening so woops there goes my free time :P
> 
> It's short but it's something! I also continued and wrote about a page for the next chapter already, so hopefully it won't take as much time for that one to be finished ;)

Kuroko and the kids had quickly finished their portions of dessert, and the part-time teacher had taken the four of them home to pick up Nigou from the sitter then head to the park—but not before the three adults had taken a good five minutes to clean off the kids’ faces, in particular the younger two. Luckily, Aomine’s quick thinking earlier had spared Atsushi’s shirt and pants from the red mess of spaghetti sauce that had adorned his face by the end of the meal. As usual, Ryouta was an absolute disaster, but Tetsu was quite used to it by now and remained totally unfazed by the mess.

Their departure left Aomine and Kagami sitting at the table alone, the blue-haired man slowly going through the different mini-cheesecakes he had been given while the chef took his late lunch break, a large steak having been delivered from the kitchen accompanied by a mountain of cheesy mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables.

It was dawning on Aomine just how much Kagami loved food: cooking it, eating it, and watching others eat what he’d cooked, if that Friday night and Kagami’s furtive glances now were anything to go by. It seemed like every time Aomine tried a new flavour of the dessert, he couldn’t help but let out a satisfied hum that instantly brought the redhead’s eyes to his face, a smile shortly following.

_Damn Bakagami wants me to compliment him again_ , Aomine thought, stubbornly refusing to give the redhead what he wanted, the earlier embarrassment of being overheard still fresh in his mind. He stuffed another bite of the savoury cake into his mouth, averting his gaze from the redhead’s handsome face to the steadily shrinking mass of food before him.

Aomine grinned as a sudden idea came to him, a way to get back at Kagami for… well, everything today. Smirking, he locked eyes with the redhead, who gave him a slightly confused frown. Aomine went slowly, keeping Kagami’s gaze trained on his to distract him from the movement of his hand as it inched close and closer to his plate of food.

Suddenly, he reached out a finger and stuck it right in the mashed potatoes, taking a big glob of the stuff and bringing the digit to his mouth, slowly licking the delicious food off, his eyes still on Kagami’s.

“Hey, what the-!” Kagami had started to cry out, but sat back in defeat and tossed a napkin at Aomine’s face once the blue-haired man had done his show of liking his finger clean. “You’re disgusting, Ahomine. I can’t believe you just did that.”

Aomine didn’t even bother giving him a proper response; he just laughed at the redhead’s grumpy expression, wiping the saliva and potato residue from his finger with the napkin only because it was starting to feel gross.

“Oi, Kagami, kitchen needs you in 20,” said the _maître d’_ as she passed by, headed from the back towards the front of the restaurant to greet a new group of patrons.

“Thanks Riko,” the chef called back after her, and Aomine made an effort to try and remember her name, since he figured he would be coming back here often enough and wanted to spare himself any further embarrassment from Kagami and his staff. He suddenly realized, however, that the woman must have been in on the whole thing, since there was no possible way she wouldn’t have known there was a “Kagami-san” somewhere in the damn restaurant that he would have been meeting for lunch.

Trying not to let his bad mood show, Aomine slowly finished all the cheesecakes while Kagami tucked away the last of his food, finishing with five minutes to spare. The ex-NBA player figured that would be it for the day, and found himself rather disappointed he would be leaving Kagami’s company, even if they’d hardly talked during the chef’s lunch break. Just as he was about to ask him when they could meet up next, either for food or for basketball, Kagami stood up and took all of the remaining dishes from the table into his arms.

“Come on, I’ll show you the kitchen,” he said, turning towards the double doors. Aomine scrambled to get out of the booth and follow him despite his surprise at the invitation.

“Oh, uh, cool.”

“If you don’t have anything better to do, you could stick around for the evening rush, it gets pretty crazy in here but as long as you stay out of the way, it’s not a big deal.” Kagami glanced back to give him his signature smile. “The guys in the kitchen are pretty entertaining, so I’m sure you won’t get bored.”

“Yeah! Uh, sure,” said Aomine, trying to hide his genuine excitement. He’d never been in the kitchen of an actual restaurant, and if felt like he was stepping into a cooking TV show or something—though he _had_ played in the NBA after all, so if anything he knew what it was like to be on TV. “Do I get fed for my troubles?”

“Sure, whatever, sometimes there’s extras, and if someone messes something up you can eat that too,” Kagami replied with a laugh, and Aomine grinned.

Aomine didn’t know much so he had nothing to compare it to, but to him the kitchen of Kagami’s restaurant was nice and big and clean and much… shinier than he had expected, what with all the new-looking stainless steel everywhere, though on closer inspection it seemed that the appliances were simply very well kept to the point of looking like new.

Kagami set him up with a chair in an out-of-the-way corner, but it seemed like throughout the evening everybody kept finding excuses to pass by where he was sitting to chat with “Kagami-san’s new friend.”

It didn’t take long for him to get to know a few of them who seemed to be friends of Kagami’s, more than just his staff members. The sous-chef, Hyuuga, yelled at him to stay out of the way and to stop bothering his subordinates, though he came by a couple of times himself to give him some meat trimmings in a savoury sauce, and later on a broken pastry shell from the dessert station. Aomine guessed he was the stern but fatherly type, and it was funny to watch him boss even Kagami around the couple of times the chef got mixed up with table numbers.

The tall, dark-haired silent guy called Mitobe was the saucier, as the jovial cat-faced expediter informed him. Koganei, who seemed to somehow be able to read the saucier’s mind, spoke for him, and was the one who bustled around between the kitchen and the serving counter the most, bringing the orders to each station and making sure each table’s order went out with all of its dishes present. Mitobe stood near the counter, assembling all the plates and adding the finishing touches, sometimes making smiley faces with the sauce when it was for a kid’s meal. Aomine got permission to take a quick, closer work at the silent man’s work as Koganei explained how the guy had like a million younger siblings so he knew what kids liked to see on their plates. Aomine took note, thinking he should pass on the tip to Tetsu to give Ryouta a few seconds of entertainment before the kid would inevitably get the food all over his face.

Though they weren’t close to where he was sitting, Aomine learned from the expediter that the dishwasher, Furihata, used to be on the wait staff but was quickly sent to the back of the house for being easily startled and not trusted to handle plates full of hot food. Aomine also learned that the pastry chef (and the one who had made the cheesecakes he’d eaten, though it’d been Kagami’s recipe) was one Izuki Shun, self-proclaimed “King of Puns.” He never got close enough to hear one for himself, not that he was particularly interested, but the bespectacled sous-chef’s angry reactions to them were entertainment enough for Aomine.

His favourite part of the day, however, was when afternoon turned to evening and the rush of customers meant everyone was too busy to chat, leaving Aomine alone to sit in his chair and watch, mesmerized, as Kagami cooked. It had been nice enough to watch him cooking in the domesticity of his own kitchen, but here there was almost a different energy to him as he mixed ingredients, grilled meat and barked orders without an ounce of hesitation.

The chef’s whites were also doing pleasant things for Aomine’s imagination, but the blue-haired man stopped himself for delving too deeply into any fantasies as he was vividly aware of where he was, and he did not want to be tenting his pants in the middle of Tora no Uta’s busy kitchen. That, coupled with the fiasco from when he’d first come in, would have been too much embarrassment for the usually cool and collected man to handle—he simply would not have been able to step foot in the restaurant ever again.

And it would have been a shame, because boy did Kagami look _hot_ while he did his chef thing. That and the good food were incentive enough to want to return practically every day, though he was sure Hyuuga would quickly get fed up of him bothering the staff if he actually did started coming by that often.

At long last, closing time came, and Kagami and Aomine left together, leaving the others to finish the rest of the cleanup. The chatted easily, Kagami sharing funny stories about his coworkers and things that had gone down at the restaurant, Aomine smiling and laughing along.

“And the one time we let him near the ovens, I swear it only took thirty seconds before the whole thing was up in flames. Nobody was hurt, I mean I haven’t been a volunteer firefighter all these years without learning a trick or two about putting out kitchen fires, so we were able to save the equipment as well. But yeah, Furihata is _not_ allowed to touch anything but the dirty dishes anymore,” Kagami finished as Aomine barked out a laugh.

“You’re a firefighter?” asked Aomine once he finally caught his breath, the whole conversation making him feel a giddy sense of excitement that made it hard to fill his lungs all the way.

“Yeah, though I only go in about once every two weeks now, what with the kids and the restaurant...”

“Quite the busy life you lead there, superchef,” Aomine teased. “You sure you have enough time in your busy schedule to squeeze in some one-on-one?”

“What, you jealous?” Kagami joked back with a laugh. “Don’t worry; I’ll always have time for basketball against you.”

_And I’ll always have time for you_ , Aomine thought, biting back a sigh. He was momentarily worried Kagami had somehow read his mind, because the redhead stopped and frowned, a pensive look on his face.

“You know… If you’re gonna be free most of the time, since you clearly don’t do anything besides sleep and play basketball…”

“Hey! I do not!” Kagami gave him a pointed look. “O-Okay maybe I do, but you don’t have to make it sound like such a _bad_ thing,” Aomine retorted, pouting. Kagami poked his forehead creases with a grin, and Aomine retaliated by pulling at his weird eyebrows in, which quickly devolved into the two of them wrestling with each other in the middle of a thankfully-deserted street. They didn’t stop until Aomine had Kagami in a headlock, the red strands of his hair tickling the blue-haired man’s tanned arm.

“Ok, enough already, I was trying to ask you to do me a favour,” Kagami said, pawing at Aomine’s arm to get him to let go. When he finally complied, the redhead stood back up and took a few deep breaths before looking at Aomine with a serious expression.

“I want you to look after my kids.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always, come talk to me on tumblr! ^u^  
> also, feel free to go through my [AU ideas tag](http://shooponthemoon.tumblr.com/tagged/au_ideas) and send me something if you think it'd be perfect for AoKaga haha ;D


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A conversation between idiots

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry these keep getting shorter and shorter... I'm just busy with stuff and I end up making scenes longer than intended so I'd rather end the chapters at a natural place and give them to you guys sooner rather than later :P
> 
> just more of Aomine being a sap and Kagami being a dork, and the both of them being idiots  
> nothing new haha

“What!?” Aomine exclaimed, not quite believing what he had just heard.

“Hear me out!” the redhead almost pleaded, placing calming hands on Aomine’s shoulders. “The babysitter downstairs is a nice lady, but I feel like she already has her hands full just dealing with Ryouta and Tetsu’s demon-dog. With you looking after the kids it’d be easier for them to be brought here for meals and I wouldn’t have to use my breaks just to come home and drop them off some food. Plus, I mean, Atsushi’s already taken a liking to you…”

“Really? You think so?”

“Didn’t you see the drawing he did of you at lunch?”

“That was supposed to be me? Well… I guess one of the stick figures had a blue, uh, head? That could have been me...”

“Yeah, the one with the basketball,” added Kagami with a laugh.

“Still though, your other kid seems to hate me for some reason,” admitted Aomine, looking down to hide his unease at sharing something that could potentially throw a wrench in their budding friendship.

“Really?” Kagami wondered, tilting his head as he considered Aomine’s words. “I don’t think so… Tatsuya’s always been pretty shy around new people, but he’s never held back from telling me if somebody was truly upsetting him or doing things he disliked. Give him some time to warm up to you, I promise he’ll come around.”

“If you say so,” said Aomine with a shrug, not entirely convinced. But short of questioning the kid himself, there was no way of knowing what was going on in Tatsuya’s mind, so he decided to let it rest for now.

“Wait a second,” Aomine said with a sudden thought, absently poking at Kagami’s abdomen to catch his attention. “You bring your kids food for every meal?”

“Yeah, what of it?” answered Kagami a bit defensively.

“Nothing, Bakagami, it’s just cute how much of a dork you are,” Aomine said without thinking, cursing himself mere seconds later for letting such an endearing word slip from his lips—and just when he had promised himself to no longer compliment the redhead! “Yeah, you’re, uh, clearly a good dad if you care that much. But, um, can’t the babysitter just make them food? She makes stuff for Ryouta, and I know because he comes home with half of it on his clothes and even sometimes in Nigou’s fur.”

“Oh, uh,” said Kagami, turning a bit red—from the compliment, or out of embarrassment? —and scratching at the back of his neck. “I may have, um, spoiled the kid’s taste buds with my cooking…”

Aomine barked out a laugh.

“Meaning they refuse to eat anything anyone else makes because it’s not as good?” he said, laughing louder as Kagami’s expression morphed into embarrassed anger.

“Shut up, Ahomine! Every kid’s got preferences, it’s nothing unusual! Besides,” Kagami said with a sniff, “just means my kids have good taste; they recognize talent when they taste it.”

“Sure, sure,” drawled Aomine with a wave.

“Unlike some ungrateful bastard I know!” growled Kagami, poking Aomine hard in the chest, which actually kind of hurt.

“Hey, I gave you enough compliments to last you a damn lifetime, so shut up and appreciate it, you eavesdropper!” retorted Aomine, poking him right back as he crowded right up into the other’s space. “And like hell would I ever say them to your ugly face, eyebrows freak!”

“Hey!” huffed Kagami. “Smug bastard, you think you’re the only one who’s good at anything, don’t you? Bet you think it’s beneath you to be nice to others for a change…”

“Well, the only one who can beat me is me!”

“Shut up already with your dumb catchphrase! Besides, Akashi was over the other day—”

“He what?” growled Aomine, trying to hide the spark of jealousy he felt.

“—and he was telling me the most interesting story of your high school basketball days, about how you lost to—”

“Shut up!” yelled Aomine, tackling a now laughing Kagami to the ground in an effort to get him to stop talking, even though there was no-one around to overhear stories of his past losses.

“Alright, alright! Just stop crushing me… all that cheesecake made you damn heavy!”

“No it did not!” he squawked indignantly, pushing himself up to his knees and crossing his arms with a pout. “I’m in shape—my weight is pure muscle! You’re the one who probably weighs a ton what with how much you pack away every meal!”

“Haha, I’m in shape too Ahomine, and I bet firefighting gives me even more muscles than you! Just because I’m a bit rusty at basketball doesn’t mean I couldn’t beat you at arm wrestling if I wanted to!”

Aomine would have protested automatically for the sake of continuing their bickering, but he took a moment to pause and give the redhead’s arms some consideration. He _had_ spent most of the afternoon admiring the other man, after all, so he was pretty familiar with the chef’s toned arms as they moved at the kitchen counter, chopping vegetables, flicking frying pans… He closed his eyes and gave his head a small shake. _Focus, Daiki!_

“Ok, so maybe you would win at that, but you’ll still never beat me at basketball, Bakagami!” Aomine grumbled angrily as he stood up and helped pull his friend up from the ground. If he took a second to feel up the redhead’s forearm well, it was only to confirm his earlier assumption that yes indeed, the volunteer firefighter was quite fit, quite strong, and could probably crush his weak elbow into the dust.

“Well how about you give me the time to get back into basketball, _then_ we’ll see who’s _really_ the best, huh?”

“Is that a challenge?” Aomine asked with an eager grin.

“Of course, dumbass! Give me one month of practice, then I promise you, I’ll beat you at one-on-one! And then, _once_ I win, you’ll have to promise to start being honest about what you think of my cooking.”

“Ohoho, adding a penalty for the loser, are we? Well I know I’ll definitely win, so I’m not worried about that! Let’s say whoever loses has to be totally honest about what they think of the other for a full week! You’ll be praising the great Aomine Daiki and all he does, mark my words!” Aomine ended with a villain-esque laugh.

“Tch, as if, you’re ego’s already big enough to burst without that. But don’t worry, _I’ll_ win. And don’t you dare say that stupid catchphrase again!” he added, giving a sharp glare to Aomine, who sheepishly closed him mouth and bit back the words.

And since the two were mature adults, they both promptly stuck their tongues out at one another.

“But seriously though, you never answered my question earlier,” said the redhead, swinging an arm over Aomine’s shoulder as the two resumed their walk back to the apartment building.

“Hah?”

“About, uh, looking after my kids,” said Kagami quietly, and Aomine could feel how tense the other was.

“Oh, uh, sure, I guess? I mean, we could give it an afternoon or two and, uh, see if we all survive?” replied Aomine just as quietly, still unsure if it was a good idea, but flattered he had gained Kagami’s trust and wanting to help out in any way he could.

Kagami’s beaming smile was reward enough, and the blue-haired man had to turn away to hide his blush, the searing heat from the other man’s smile, oh so close to his own face, too much for him to handle. The tanned man felt himself get tugged closer, however, as Kagami gave him a sort of side-hug, touching their forehead as he said a quiet thank you, grin still lighting up his face.

“Yeah yeah, whatever,” huffed Aomine, eager to escape from the close proximity to the other man and his engulfing heat, yet still relishing every moment he was close. “You wanna, uh, shoot some hoops or something for a bit? Start getting some practice in?”

“I’d love to, but I, ah—” Kagami paused as he yawned, right in Aomine’s ear, and the blue-haired man shoved him playfully away with a hand right on his face. “I should get home and put the kids to bed; they’ll be demanding a bedtime story and I’m pretty tired myself. But if you can look after the kids tomorrow and Thursday, Fridays I usually try to have off because of movie night, so we could play in the afternoon if you want, and you’re welcome to come over for supper as well.”

“Yeah, that sounds great,” Aomine said, fondness leaking into his voice before he could catch himself. “So, um, what time should I come over tomorrow?”

“Well, Hyuuga handles prep with the others so I usually can get by with showing up just before we open at 11, so maybe if you drop by just before 10:30? I usually prepare bentos or sandwiches for the boys’ lunches so you only need to bring them over to Tora no Uta around 5 ish for supper, or earlier if they’re hungry. Though, don’t go by Atsushi, he’ll say he’s hungry an hour after a big meal,” Kagami ended with a laugh.

“Right. Am I allowed to give the kid snacks at least?”

“Of course! Tatsuya will show you where I keep them hidden. Just make sure Atsushi doesn’t get into the box because that kid does not know the definition of ‘in moderation.’”

“Sounds like somebody else I know,” said Aomine under his breath, rolling his eyes. That earned him another laugh and a punch to the arm. _I could take a million punches to the arm if it meant hearing that laugh every day for the rest of my life_ , thought the blue-haired man with a sigh.

Without even noticing, the two had already gotten into the building and all the way up the elevator and down the hall. Kagami left Aomine at Tetsu’s door, giving him a wave.

“Remember to set an alarm for tomorrow! 10:30; don’t be late!”

“I won’t forget, Bakagami!” Aomine said grumpily, already not looking forward to having to wake up that early. He watched as the redhead unlocked his door and stepped inside, the door closing behind him with a soft click. Aomine sighed again, before letting his lips quirk up into a goofy grin.

“See you tomorrow, Kagami.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> things will hopefully start moving faster in the next chapter? send me some love and motivation guys, I keep getting afraid I'll lose interest in updating...
> 
> definitely share any headcanons you might have about the kids, I might use some as inspiration in the next chapter ;D


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Babysitting, Day 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the slow-ness of updating, my mood has taken a turn for the worse again and I'm pretty sure I'm depressed? so it's been a bit tough to find motivation to write in between work and other stuff
> 
> a huge thanks to everyone who left comments on the last chapter, you guys are so sweet <3  
> this one's a lot longer haha, so I hope you like it!

Aomine had been too worked up last night to go to bed after his conversation with Kagami. He had been filled with delirious excitement about spending more time with the redhead, but near-crippling anxiety at somehow failing with his children, and by extension, failing him.

Luckily Tetsu hadn’t been around, probably still at Kagami’s with the kids waiting for the chef to return home, so Aomine had been able to go in and get his basketball without being spotted by his far-too-perceptive friend. Satsuki had been in the shower, singing off-key as usual, so he’d quickly slipped into some sportswear before leaving the apartment and heading down, taking the stairs two at a time.

He’d spent a couple of hours on the court, not necessarily practicing anything specific but just trying to tire himself out as quickly as possible to get rid of the high of excess energy he was feeling. As much as he’d love to bask in the moment and _totally not_ swoon over Kagami, Aomine was afraid of letting himself stay up late again from his excitement, then accidentally sleeping past his alarm and being late for his first day of babysitting.

So once he’d thoroughly exhausted himself, he’d trudged back up the stairs, taken a quick shower, then hopped straight into bed—though not before triple-checking that his alarm was indeed set, and for the right time.

To his relief, he’d managed to wake up with his alarm, banishing his worried dreams of oversleeping and arriving three hours late, the hallway between their apartments having grown longer and longer the closer he tried to get to Kagami’s door, his legs feeling like lead as he’d struggled to run. _What a shitty nightmare_ , he’d thought while getting out of bed.

Tetsu was thankfully gone already, the note on the fridge’s whiteboard saying he’d dropped off Ryouta at the sitter’s on the way to a middle school where he was subbing for a friend who was sick. Aomine was a bit surprised since Tetsu usually preferred teaching at elementary schools, but if it was a favour for a friend perhaps he was getting a vanilla shake out of the deal.

Aomine scarfed down a bowl of cereal he’d topped off with some sugar to try and “fix” the taste, wincing at the flavour of the residual milk at the bottom of his bowl. He tossed the liquid without finishing it before heating up the small bowl of miso soup that had been left in the fridge with “Dai-chan!” written on it in Satsuki’s cutesy handwriting.

Satisfied that’d he’d managed to have a somewhat decent breakfast, he went to brush his teeth, taking a full minute longer than usual, and freshened up a bit before slipping into some clean-enough clothes. He figured a black shirt would be good, that way if the kids spilled anything on him it wouldn’t show, plus it didn’t smelled too bad when he gave it an experimental whiff. He finished off his outfit with some grey basketball shorts before grabbing his wallet and keys and heading out the door.

After taking a few moments outside of Kagami’s door to collect himself, he gave it a few quick knocks. At first he was worried he hadn’t been loud enough and raised his hand to knock again, but stopped himself once he heard the excited pounding of tiny feet heading towards the door from inside the apartment.

He heard someone struggling with the handle—probably struggling to _reach_ the handle—for a few seconds before a second pair of footsteps joined the first at the door, pulling it open with much more ease. A purple-haired toddler was swept up into strong arms as Aomine’s gaze fell onto the redhead, his heart beginning to pound.

“Surprise!” said Kagami as he blew a messy raspberry on his son’s cheek.

“Mine-chin is the surprise?” the toddler asked, giggling as he tried to escape his father’s arms and ticklish kisses. “But I want ice cream!”

“Well, I’m better than ice cream,” Aomine declared cockily as he stepped into the apartment. “Also… Mine-chin?”

“Mine-chin is Mine-chin,” the boy explained before tugging on the stretched-out and slobbery neck of his shirt and bringing it up to his mouth to chew on.

“He likes to give people… odd nicknames,” said Kagami with a laugh.

“Oh, yeah, Ryouta does the exact same thing. Satsuki too, actually,” Aomine said, nodding his head thoughtfully.

“Right!” agreed Kagami, his smile leaving Aomine breathless as always. The blue-haired man cleared his throat, looking away.

“So, uh… what now?”

“Well, you arrived on time, which is better than I expected,” he teased, taking Aomine’s punch to the shoulder in stride as he turned to walk farther into the apartment. “I’ll show you where they keep all their toys and stuff, they can play with anything they want as long as they pick up after themselves. Lunch is in the fridge, supper will be at the restaurant, and all the emergency numbers are on the fridge, including my cell number. Actually, put it in your phone now and send me a text so I can have yours, just in case.”

“Sure,” Aomine said casually, betraying none of the excitement he felt at finally having the redhead’s number. He had to make himself promise that he wouldn’t turn into a lovesick teenaged girl obsessed over texting her crush now that he had it. He would have to play it cool from now on even more than before.

Next Aomine was given a quick tour of the apartment as Kagami gave him a rundown on their at-home routine. The chef passed off Atsushi to Tatsuya, who had stayed silent and out of the way up until then, so he could show Aomine the secret stash he kept for Atsushi’s afternoon snacks. Under no circumstance was he to let the boy know where they were hidden, because otherwise he’d eat the entire contents in one sitting before throwing it all up an hour later. _Definitely speaking from experience_ , thought Aomine with a grin, glad he hadn’t been the one to clean up _that_ mess.

“Right, I think that’s everything; I should probably get going if I don’t want to be late. If anything comes up, just text me, ok?” Kagami asked as he paused in the entryway to slip into his work shoes.

“Yup,” anwered Aomine, making the “p” sound pop. He gave a small wave as the redhead left with a smile, closing the door behind himself. Aomine exhaled, leaning his forehead against the door for a few seconds and closing his eyes.

“Aomine-san, Atsushi wants to draw with you,” said Tatsuya, interrupting Aomine’s moment of peace. The tanned man turned to peer over at the dark-haired child, one eye still hidden by his bangs. His face, like his voice had been, was rather expressionless, and for a second Aomine was afraid that the guy had somehow learned from Tetsu how to disguise his emotions almost completely. But then a small frown appeared as the kid wrinkled his nose, giving him an unhappy look.

“He wants to know if you want the dinosaur colouring book or the farm animal one.”

“Oh, uh, doesn’t matter to me,” answered Aomine with a shrug as he started walking towards the kitchen. He couldn’t help but notice how Tatsuya stayed three steps ahead of him the entire time, as if not wanting to let him get close. “And you don’t need to use honorifics, you know, just Aomine is fine.”

Tatsuya gave him a look, one the blue-haired man wasn’t skilled enough to interpret, as Aomine sat down at the kitchen table beside Atsushi, who had spread out his box of crayons over an impressively wide area of the table’s surface.

“ _I’ll_ be in my room reading, Aomine- _san_ ,” was Tatsuya’s curt reply before turning heel and heading off to his room, presumably. Aomine sighed, rubbing at his eyes almost in despair. There was no way to miss the clear emphasis the boy had put on the honorific.

“Dinosaurs are cool but farm animals are like, the meat in food, so I dunno what to pick,” said Atsushi suddenly, bouncing in his seat while shoving both colouring books in Aomine’s field of vision.

“Well, the animals aren’t meat _yet_ , so I maybe you could draw the dinosaurs, they’re much cooler,” said Aomine, giving a tentative smile to the kid, who was listening attentively and giving him a serious nod.

“Yes. And! And! I can make the dinosaurs eat steak! Like Daddy makes!” he exclaimed, eagerly opening the book and grabbing a green crayon to get started on his velociraptors.

“Good idea, kiddo. Farm animals just eat grass and hay, so boring,” said Aomine, giving his long purple hair a good ruffle before he started idly flipping through his own appointed colouring book. He stopped at a page with a funny-looking goat captioned: “Billy the goat eats everything, even Farmer Josie’s hat!” before giving a snort of laughter. _It’s fucking Kagami as a goat_ , he thought, grinning to himself as he picked up a red crayon and started on his masterpiece.

They spent a long time colouring peacefully, only breaking the silence when Atsushi asked for a crayon that had rolled out of his reach or to show off a page he had finished, the colours mostly within the lines and with all of his own creative “additions” to each page. The velociraptors were eating steaks, the triceratops had a giant bowl of multi-coloured ice cream—which Aomine figured out only _after_ Atsushi had explained it to him—while the apatosaurus was munching on the top of a giant stack of strawberry shortcakes.

Aomine was slowly working through his own colouring book, turning a family of sheep into Tetsu, Satsuki and Ryouta. He also gave a few of the cows some impressive patterns of spots, using stars and moons as Atsushi suggested. The farm’s fluffy sheepdog got purple fur, and Aomine was kind enough to draw him plenty of snacks in case he got hungry.

“Where’s the blue?” Atsushi asked, just as Aomine was starting to think that he was getting the hang of this babysitting business.

“Huh?”

“No blue,” said the boy again, now starting to pout. Aomine took a quick look around the table, but didn’t spot any blue crayons. He got out of the chair and kneeled down to inspect the floor in case they had fallen off the table, but they were nowhere to be found.

“Sorry bud, I don’t see any,” Aomine said apologetically.

“But I need it,” the boy whined, and Aomine instantly became afraid of potential tears. Leaning over to look at the page he was working on, Aomine spotted a bright red T-Rex facing off against what looked like a man with a giant orange… a basketball!

_Oh,_ thought Aomine, shocked as the realization hit him. _He’s trying to draw me again. Playing against a T-Rex? Holy shit, the T-Rex is Kagami! This is fucking hilarious!_

“Ah, um, is that me?” Aomine asked as he pointed, trying not to sound too excited.

“Yes, but I can’t finish! I need blue!” he said with a light sniffle, making Aomine tense.

“Um, how about we finish it later then. We can bring it with us to the restaurant and you can borrow one of the blue crayons there, ok? And then you can show all of them to your dad, how’s that?” Aomine said, instantly relieved to see the toddler’s face brighten with a smile at his words.

“Ok! Can we eat lunch now?”

“I guess so,” Aomine said, looking over at the clock. It was passed noon, so it should be fine for them to eat. “Can you go get your brother for me while I take out the food?”

“Ok!” Atsushi said happily while he climbed out of his chair, Aomine keeping a steadying hand on his back. He ran off towards the bedrooms while the tanned man stretched then headed towards the fridge to see what Kagami had left for the kids.

“Oh, and wash your hands!” Aomine called after him, wanting to sound like a responsible adult and knowing that was something Satsuki pestered Ryouta about before every meal.

Upon opening the fridge, Aomine was pleasantly surprised to find that not only had Kagami prepared bento lunches for the kids, but he’s also left a third, larger box for him. He took them out and set them on the counter before turning to clear the crayons and colouring books from the table. The boys got back just as he was setting out the bentos and chopsticks.

“Which cupboard has the cups?” Aomine asked, wanting to avoid opening each and every one until he found what he was looking for.

“I’ll get them,” said Tatsuya, not even looking at Aomine as he spoke.

“Uh, thanks,” Aomine replied with a shrug, deciding he was going to try his best to not let the older boy’s cold shoulder treatment affect him. “Atsushi, what do you want to drink?”

“Milk!”

“Ok, here you go,” said Aomine as he poured the toddler a glass once Tatsuya had set them on the table. “Do you want milk too?”

“No thank you, Aomine-san.”

“Well then, itadakimasu,” he said, sitting down and bringing his hands together.

“Itadakimasu!” Atsushi parroted before digging into his own bento.

The meal was relatively calm, Tatsuya finishing his food first and placing the empty box by the sink before retreating back to his room. When he and Atsushi were finished, Aomine added their dishes to the pile and headed to the living room with the toddler in tow.

“Do you want to watch some basketball? There’s a channel that plays NBA reruns in the afternoons,” Aomine asked as they settled down on the couch, him kicking up the leg rest while Atsushi snuggled into his side. Aomine lifted his arm to give the kid more space, which he quickly occupied, before gently resting his arm back down across the boy’s shoulders.

“I like basketball a lot,” he said in a quiet voice, big purple eyes glancing up at the tall man’s face.

“Good,” declared Aomine, giving a genuine smile as he turned on the TV and started flicking through channels until he found the right one.

They spent the better part of the afternoon sitting together watching the games, Aomine giving Atsushi running commentary as the English was too fast for him to keep up with and the subtitles used too many kanji he didn’t know. The young boy gave excited gasps every time one of the players did an impressive shot or dunk, and Aomine had to admit it was fun watching the games with someone so openly enthusiastic about practically everything going on, not even bothering to root for one team over the other.

They only took a break when Atsushi ran off to the bathroom, Aomine taking the opportunity to sneak the kid a snack from the secret stash, surprising him when he returned to the living room. Atsushi munched away as they kept watching, Aomine warm and comfortable and strangely sleepy…

“Aomine-san. Aomine-san!” came a voice as the blue-haired man was somewhat roughly shaken from his nap.

“Hmmm?” he mumbled as he opened his eyes, wanting to bring up an arm to wipe at his eyes but finding a warm weight preventing him from doing so. Looking down, he saw Atsushi still asleep, a tight grip on his arm as he held it firmly in his grasp.

“Aomine-san, it’s time for supper, we need to go,” Tatsuya repeated, giving Aomine another shake. The blue-haired man missed the small grin the kid had as he turned away to get ready to go.

“Right, right, I’m awake, I’m up,” he mumbled as he gently lowered the leg rest back into the couch and gathered Atsushi into his arms as he stood up, the toddler instantly nuzzling his neck and leaving a trail of slobber in his wake.

“Can you grab his shoes?” Aomine asked as he stuffed his wallet and keys into his pocket. He made sure to grab the spare Kagami had left him so he could lock up when they left. He struggled to get into own shoes without any help from his hands, but managed to in the end without falling over.

“Here,” said Tatsuya, being uncharacteristically helpful as he pulled the small shoes onto his brother’s feet while Aomine continued to hold him up. He remembered at the last minute to grab Atsushi’s dinosaur colouring book, knowing he’d probably get upset if it were left behind. Then they finally left the apartment and the building, turning down the street to walk towards the restaurant.

Aomine kept yawning, mostly ignoring the people passing by as he followed Tatsuya through the crowd. A few girls giggled as they walked past, and he wondered how many people thought the kids were _his_ , almost wanting to laugh at the idea himself.

When they got inside, Riko, the _maître d’_ , barked out a laugh before ushering them in to the table in the far corner by the kitchen doors. Aomine frowned, wondering what the hell was so amusing about the sight of him having a giant purple leech in his arms. Well, ok, Satsuki would probably laugh too, but they’ve been friends forever so it’s ok if it were her.

They sat down and leafed through the menu, though Tatsuya seemed to already know what he wanted to eat without sparing the booklet more than a glance. Aomine settled on the steak, wanting to taste more of those delicious mashed potatoes Kagami had been eating last time, and craving steak since the discussion with Atsushi earlier that morning.

But when Kagami finally came out of the kitchen to talk to the three, he took one look at Aomine’s face before bursting out in loud, gut-wrenching laughter, having to steady himself with a hand on the table as he bent over, clutching his abdomen.

“What’s so damn funny, Bakagami?” hissed Aomine angrily as Atsushi began to stir, woken up by his father’s loud antics. The redhead couldn’t respond though, as he still struggled to force air into his lungs between laughs.

Aomine was distracted by tiny fingers poking at his face, and he looked down at the still-dozy Atsushi, who gave him a big yawn before resuming his poking up Aomine’s upper lip.

“Blue,” was all the kid said, and Aomine’s stomach sank as Tatsuya’s up-till-then restrained giggling broke out, his amusement clear as he laughed out loud. Aomine gently moved Atsushi so he could leave the booth, grabbing Kagami by the wrist to pull him back into the kitchen area and over to the employee bathroom.

One look in the mirror was all he needed to confirm exactly who had taken their missing blue crayons earlier that day: drawn onto his upper lip was a crude, cartoon-y blue moustache, courtesy of one Kagami Tatsuya, most likely done while he and Atsushi had been asleep on the couch.

“That little brat!” Aomine growled, Kagami’s laughter finally starting to die down. “Fuck!”

“It’s fine; it’ll wash off,” Kagami was finally able to say, his voice still filled with mirth. “I think it suits you,” was all he got out before falling into hysterics once more.

“Fuck you,” said Aomine flatly, giving him the finger through the mirror as he turned on the faucet.

“Here, ah, let me help,” said Kagami, producing a cloth from his apron and wetting it, dabbing soap onto a corner.

A warm hand cupped Aomine’s face, turning him away from the mirror to look into deep red eyes that were focused on his upper lip. In any other situation Aomine would be anticipating a kiss, but right now he knew he had to quell his body’s excitement as he began reacting against his will to being touched by the redhead, suddenly feeling hot all over.

Unfortunately, the moment was broken once Kagami started scrubbing at his lip, the strength of the action causing the blue-haired man to hiss in pain. It took five full minutes of scrubbing to remove all of the blue residue, leaving Aomine with a sore and _very_ red upper lip. He was relieved when the assault was over, but almost wanted to whimper when Kagami stepped away to rinse the cloth.

“So other than that, how was the first day?” Kagami asked with a smile, and Aomine sighed.

“Not bad, actually… I’ll tell you about it over supper if you want.”

“Sure, I could use a break.”

“Oh and Atsushi has some stuff he wants to show you. Dinosaur drawings, mostly.”

Kagami laughed fondly.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

The chef wrung out the cloth and hung it to dry while Aomine took a final look at himself in the mirror, his frown doing nothing to help his haggard appearance and the slight puffiness of his upper lip.

“You owe me one hell of a good steak for this, Bakagami,” he grumpled, and felt a strong hand give his back a solid whack to the back as Kagami brought him in for another one of his side-hugs, grinning at their reflected selves.

“The best damn steak you’ve ever tasted. Chef’s promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you guys ever have any good ideas for AoKaga au prompts I'm always looking for writing inspiration ;) just send me an ask on tumblr!
> 
> thanks again for the great comments, they really make my day! <3


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Babysitting, day 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's like I keep forgetting that I have complete power as an author to add however many cheesy, shippy moments into my fics as I'd like XD  
> anyways this is still all fluff for now haha, my goal is to get more plot-related stuff moving within the next couple of chapters, so fingers crossed!

That night, Aomine caved and asked—more like begged, really—Tetsu to help him out after finally admitting that he was, for the time being, going to be babysitting Kagami’s two kids while the chef was at work.

When he told him, Tetsu gave him _that look_ , the one that Aomine knew meant his short friend was internally laughing his head off at him, probably imagining the disasters that could happen due to Aomine, of all people, being put in charge of actual, real children for any great length of time. The tanned man pouted, disappointed yet unsurprised at Tetsu’s lack of faith in his abilities.

“Daiki-kun, I am not doubting that you are good with children,” Tetsu said, turning away so he could let out a small grin. “I simply know that you are not a very responsible individual, and as you are someone who is often prone to napping throughout the day, I wonder how long you will last before falling asleep while on the job.”

“Well, uh…” Aomine started, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.

“Dai-chan! You fell asleep and left the children unsupervised, didn’t you!” Satsuki exclaimed, jumping into the room from where she’d been eavesdropping and smacking Aomine across the back of his head.

“Look, I took a nap _with_ Atsushi, and the other one was reading in his room, he was fine, I swear!” Satsuki gave an unsatisfied “hmmph!” but backed down, crossing her arms.

“Daiki-kun, just make sure that you never fall asleep when Atsushi is awake, alright? He’s very young, younger than Ryouta, and definitely lacks impulse control when it comes to food. Even if he falls asleep you should stay close by; Kagami-kun has mentioned that he is prone to nightmares, though he’s been getting better,” Tetsu explained, fixing Aomine with a serious stare. The tall man nodded, understanding how important it was to be vigilant around youngsters and promising himself to be more careful from now on.

“Well then, Daiki-kun, as promised I will tell you all you need to know about looking after young children. You can trust me; I am a professional.”

Aomine rolled his eyes but smiled all the same at his friend’s joke before sitting down on the couch and getting ready to try and learn as much as he could from the part-time teacher.

~~~

“CANDYLAND!” Astushi shrieked, launching himself at Aomine’s legs and unsuccessfully trying to tackle the blue-haired man to get at the game box he currently held over his head, way out of the child’s reach. Aomine echoed Kagami’s laugh, grinning down at the purple-haired toddler, if anything to give his eyes something to look at other than the redhead’s blinding smile.

“I guess I know which game we’re starting with,” Aomine said, setting down onto the kitchen table the other things in his arms so he could lean over without getting unbalanced. “Here kiddo, I brought it just for you.”

“Atsushi, why don’t you go ask your brother to help get the game set up in the living room,” said Kagami as the toddler nodded before rushing out of sight, yelling his brother’s name at the top of his lungs. The two adults watched as he left, smiles still lingering, before turning their gazes to each other. “Man, how the hell did you get that game? He’s been wanting it ever since he saw an ad for it on one of the American cartoons channels Tatsuya watches to practice his English, but I haven’t found any Japanese versions of the game in the toyshops here…”

“Actually, I’ve bought a bunch of games for Tetsu over the years back when I was living in the States, first just for the kids at school and later for Ryouta… I had to dig through a closet to find this one though, but I brought a few others Tetsu said they might also like, ones that Ryouta hasn’t completely destroyed by now,” Aomine explained, leaning against the wall and watching as Kagami got ready to head out to work.

“Thanks a bunch Aomine, I’m sure they’re gonna love them. You still good for some one-on-one tomorrow?” the redhead asked, pausing with a hand on the knob.

“Of course. You ready to lose?” taunted the blue-haired man. Kagami simply rolled his eyes and opened the door, calling a goodbye to his kids and giving a small wave to Aomine as he left.

The tanned man took a deep breath once the door closed. _Man, I feel like a puppy with separation anxiety, what the hell_ , thought Aomine as he shook himself and headed back to the living room where Tatsuya was setting up the board for Atsushi, who was practically vibrating with excitement.

“You wanna play with us?” Aomine asked the dark-haired boy, who looked up with wide eyes, his surprise probably due in part to the tall man’s sudden appearance and from being directly addressed by him. Tatsuya glanced down at the board with a rather disinterested look on his face, so Aomine went back to grab the pile of other games from the kitchen and dropped them on the floor close to where they were sitting.

“Winner gets to pick our next game,” said Aomine, smirking in triumph at the sudden competitive look in Tatsuya’s eyes.

“Ok,” was all he said, and Atsushi was instantly over him, asking which colour he wanted to play as, though he was waving only the yellow figure in his brother’s face. “Yellow is fine, Atsushi.”

“Good. Mine-chin has to be blue and I want green ‘cause green is like green apple candy, and when Daddy plays with us he can be red,” the purple-haired boy said matter-of-factly as he placed their three figures at the starting point. Tatsuya chuckled softly and as Aomine reached over to ruffle Atsushi’s hair.

“Well, youngest gets to go first, so you can start if you want, Atsushi,” Aomine said, and the boy gave him a huge smile. Aomine grinned, happy that he had taken Tetsu’s advice to bring games, and certain that today things would go much better than the day before.

~~~

They played three rounds of Candyland, only because Atsushi kept winning, but instead of choosing another game, he insisted that they play Candyland again. When Tatsuya finally won, he quickly grabbed the pack of Go Fish cards and Aomine breathed a sigh of relief. Atsushi was having trouble remembering to keep his hand hidden from the others, so after aborting a few rounds Aomine finally scooped the toddler into his lap and played against Tatsuya, letting Atsushi point at the cards he wanted Aomine to ask for.

The tanned man was glad the older kid seemed to be having fun, though he didn’t quite care for the little smirk he gave each time he told Aomine to “Go fish.”

Tatsuya ended up winning, and Aomine promised he could choose which game to start with next time. As they got up to go wash their hands for lunch, Aomine had to pause when he realized that he had assumed there _would_ be a “next time,” even though there was no guarantee Kagami would agree to keep him on as a babysitter after today. He stood, unmoving, until Atsushi came back to ask for help reaching the cups, and Aomine snapped back into action, quickly washing up at the kitchen sink then getting everything ready for their meal.

The food was excellent as usual, and Aomine decided to be helpful and do the dishes when they were finished instead of just dumping them on the counter. Tatsuya retreated to his room, presumably to continue his book, and Atsushi helped with the dishes, though all he really did was stand on the step stool and play with the bubbles, smearing some all over the both of their arms.

“Basketball?” Atsushi had asked with big puppy eyes once they had finished, and Aomine gladly said yes.

They got themselves comfortable on the couch once again and tuned into the game that was currently airing. They watched much in the same way as they had the previous day, Aomine giving his own version of the commentary and Atsushi happily parroting some of the English phrases the commenters kept using with his slight accent. The afternoon passed by quickly, especially once the first game ended and they started showing a few back-to-back games of Aomine’s old team from the last season he had played, meaning Atsushi sat starry-eyed as the two watched his slightly younger self fly across the court on-screen, easily crushing weaker opponents and still playing beautifully against tougher ones.

Aomine had popped a bag of popcorn for them to share as Atsushi’s afternoon snack, running to the kitchen and hopping around impatiently while he waited for the microwave to finish during the short commercial break between two of his games. The mess Atsushi had made with the buttery snack reminded Aomine of Ryouta at the end of most meals, and he smiled as he had fetched a damp cloth to clean him up, the toddler’s attention still fixated on the basketball game.

When a game ended at five, Aomine shut off the TV despite Atsushi’s begging for more and told him to get ready to leave for supper. By the time he came back from getting Tatsuya away from his book, the purple-haired boy was sitting near the front door, shoes already on and a child-sized basketball in his arms. Aomine gave him a huge smile and lifted him up in the air, shouting “Slam dunk!” as the toddler released the ball into the empty umbrella bin.

The walk to the restaurant took much longer as Atsushi walked along at a slow pace, bouncing his ball with both hands. Every once in a while it would get away from him, and Tatsuya was quick to fetch it for him, though Aomine was the one to grab it any time it bounced towards the street.

“No moustache today?” Riko asked when they walked in, and Aomine gave her a glare while the two kids laughed giddily.

They sat at their usual table, the kids immediately launching into a retelling of their day the moment Kagami came out to greet them. Aomine watched as they talked animatedly, his chin resting on his hand and a fond look on his face. Atsushi talked the most about their morning, then Tatsuya told him about how he was nearing the end of his book, and Atsushi finished by praising Aomine’s basketball, which made the ex-NBA player grin with delight.

Kagami laughed and ruffled his kids’ hair. They chose their dishes and Kagami disappeared for a half hour to make their food. Aomine swallowed his pride and got up to go ask Riko for paper and crayons for the kids once Atsushi started to get too fidgety.

Kagami sat to eat with them once he brought out their meals. The food was delicious, and Aomine was starting to wonder if his taste buds were also going to get spoiled soon enough like the kids’ had been due to Kagami’s amazing cooking.

Ice cream was the dessert of choice among their group. Aomine was too distracted talking basketball with Kagami to notice that Atsushi kept stealing spoonfuls of his chocolate ice cream, but the other two certainly did and had a hard time concealing their amusement.

Atsushi’s eyelids were starting to droop by the time they had to head back. Aomine reluctantly said goodbye to Kagami who was once again being asked for back in the kitchen, and the three headed back home, the youngest in Aomine’s arms and the oldest bouncing the small ball as he walked.

Tatsuya ran to his room the moment they got back, Aomine not quite understanding his love for books but knowing full well what it was like to be that passionate about something. He let him go even though he desperately wanted help finding pajamas for Atsushi, but he settled for placing the kid in his nest of blankets on Kagami’s bed and then rifling through all the drawers until he found the right one.

Most of them were filled with what were clearly Kagami’s clothes, and Aomine had to stop himself from picking any up and touching them, smelling them… _Ok weird, stop it brain_ , Aomine scolded himself, snapping the drawer with Kagami’s t-shirts shut. The contents of the next one he opened made him blush deeply, and this time he couldn’t stop himself from feeling the soft material of Kagami’s bright red underwear. Most of the pairs were black or dark grey, but the few red ones stood out, and Aomine felt his mouth go dry and his body grow hot.

He slammed the drawer shut and moved on to the next dresser, sighing with relief when he found toddler-sized clothing. He grabbed a pair of star-speckled PJs and went back to the bed where Atsushi was sitting up and rubbing at his eyes, probably woken up by Aomine’s banging around.

“Here kiddo, put these on and we’ll go brush your teeth, ok?” Aomine said gently.

“But I’m not tired,” Atsushi protested, his words betrayed by a subsequent yawn.

“Sleep sounds nice though, we’ve had a long, exciting day,” added Aomine, and the boy nodded and slowly got changed.

Aomine went to grab the boy’s step stool from where they’d left it in the kitchen and helped hold him up while he brushed his teeth with a dinosaur-shaped toothbrush. Once he was all cleaned up, Aomine tucked him back into his blankets.

“Story,” demanded Atsushi, pointing to a shelf of kids’ books off to the right.

“Ok, I’ll read one, but then you have to sleep,” Aomine compromised, and Atsushi gave him another nod. “Which one do you want?”

“ _Sir Bakesalot and the Perfect Pie_ ; it’s my favourite,” he answered.

“Of course it is,” Aomine said, shaking his head with a grin. He found the slim book and pulled it off the shelf before settling down on the bed, using the two pillows to make himself comfortable against the headrest.

He read the book slowly, laughing along with Atsushi at the funny bits and quieting down once they neared the end, the boy’s yawning becoming almost constant. When he finished, he closed the book and set it off to the side, feeling sleepy himself as he watched Atsushi curl up into his blankets and nod off.

Tetsu’s words still fresh in his mind, he decided to stay where he was to keep an eye on the kid, though he moved the pillows back to where they were and simply lay down as if to sleep while staying on top of the covers.

He drifted off, a small hand gripping his finger and his lungs full of Kagami’s scent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always, thank you for the lovely comments, those really help keep me motivated and I love hearing what you guys think! if there's ever anything specific that you love, like a certain line or character's action or whatever, please point it out and say why because I promise you I will sit here grinning like an idiot while I read your comment ^///^
> 
> love you guys <3


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aomine can't handle all of these feelings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's probably just 'cause I wrote it but this chapter feels so weird to me... I just had too many interruptions while I was writing, I hate that :c  
> lots of Aomine being flustered and not knowing how to handle being in ~love~ hehe  
> I also tried to add more Kagami/kids interactions because that was requested. there will be more I promise! I just have a fondness for writing Aomine and the kids haha

Aomine vaguely remembered the sensation of being lifted, of the small hand finally letting go of his finger as he was carried away, Kagami’s scent suddenly becoming stronger, more vivid as his body rested against something warm and comfortable. Such movement would usually put him on edge, bother him enough to wake from his slumber, but he somehow he slept on, the familiar presence putting him at ease as he burrowed his head into a warm neck, his hands gripping a soft shirt.

Those soothing snippets of memories felt like nothing more than a dream when Aomine woke up on Friday, his body first panicking at having slept in too late before his mind caught up enough to remember that he didn’t have to babysit the kids that day.

He crawled out of bed, yawning as he lazily scratched his stomach. It took him a second to realize that he wasn’t actually wearing his sleep pants, just the same clothes as yesterday minus a shirt.

Blood rushed to his cheeks as he remembered falling asleep in Kagami’s bed, and he realized that those impressions must actually be real memories. Kagami had most likely carried him to his room once the chef had gotten home, and he groaned and held his head in his hands in embarrassment as he imagined what it must have looked like for the redhead to find him asleep in his own bed. Even worse was what Tetsu and Satsuki’s reaction must have been like when he’d been carried home like a sleeping child. He would no doubt be mercilessly teased about it for days to come.

And Aomine was definitely not _stalling_ ; he just happened to decide that he wanted a frozen pizza for breakfast, lunch, lunchfast, brunch, whatever you want to call it when you wake up too late in the morning for separate meals, and it just so happened that he ended up having to wait the thirty minutes until the oven warmed up, then fifteen more minutes for the thing to cook, then another five to ten for it to cool down, and finally about twenty minutes for him to scarf down the entire thing, washing it down with a bottle of sports drink he found kicking around at the back of the fridge.

It was almost 1pm by the time he’d cleaned up after himself and gotten changed and ready, basketball tucked under his arm as he walked down the hall to the now-familiar apartment door.

He rang the doorbell and immediately smiled when he heard an excited Atsushi practically stampede his way to the front door. Aomine could almost make out his noises of exertion as the kid no doubt tried to reach for the handle that remained frustratingly out of his reach.

“Mine-chin,” came a muffled voice, “I can’t reach!” Aomine supressed a laugh; he could hear the pout clear in the child’s voice.

A deeper voice carried from farther inside the apartment, but the blue-haired man couldn’t quite make out the words, though he knew it was Kagami speaking.

“Daddy says the door is un, uh, unlocked!” Atsushi piped up.

“Ok, stand back so I can open it then,” Aomine replied, waiting until he heard the toddler shuffle away before turning the handle and going inside.

“Don’t worry about it, Atsushi,” he started to say, “One day you’re gonna be tall enough to—oof!”

He trailed off as his leg was attacked, and he rolled his eyes as he bent down to pick up the purple-haired boy, his cheek instantly feeling wet when a slobber-covered plastic dinosaur was shoved up against his face.

“The dinosaur is eating you!” Atsushi screeched, and Aomine faked dying noises all the way over to the kitchen, where Kagami was supervising as an immensely focused Tatsuya chopped an onion, kid-sized safety goggles on his eyes to prevent any unwanted tears.

“Yo, didn’t know you had a Jurassic Park installed in your front entrance,” Aomine joked as ways of greeting, sidling up to Kagami, bumping their hips together. The redhead laughed when he looked up at the pair, quickly grabbing a cloth to wipe clean both the toy and Aomine’s cheek, leaving the tanned man slightly flushed and tongue-tied as the casual touch reminded him of just _how much_ touching had to have happened the previous night in order for Kagami to have carried him home.

“Daddy, the dinosaur eated, uh no, ate Mine-chin!”

“Are you sure, Atsushi? Because long-necks are herbivores,” teased Kagami, booping his son on the nose.

“That means they don’t eat meat!” said Tatsuya proudly as he took off the goggles, finished with his task. “Your T-Rex would totally eat Aomine-san though,” he added, smirking at his own dark humour.

“He would gobble him up in one bite!” agreed the redhead with a laugh, lifting his youngest out of Aomine’s arms and giving a loud raspberry to his exposed belly as the boy laughed and wriggled.

The blue-haired man sat down, watching the domestic scene with a goofy smile and a sudden pang on longing in his heart. Just then, he spotted the biggest pot-shaped appliance he’d even seen on the counter, and was about to ask about the size before shaking his head, knowing that with Kagami’s appetite anything smaller would be insufficient.

“We’re just making a pork dish to throw in the crock pot for the afternoon, that way we can stay outside playing basketball without worrying about the food,” explained Kagami as he handed Tatsuya another vegetable to cut before ruffling his hair. “This guy’s my sous-chef for today, and as soon as he’s done chopping these we’ll throw everything into the pot to cook then head down.”

“Sounds good to me,” said the blue-haired man, relaxing into his chair as Atsushi dragged another one right up against it, climbing onto it to get close enough to whisper into Aomine’s ear.

“Do you think herbidores eat candy?”

“Of course they do,” Aomine whispered back seriously. “The T-Rex likes to steal their candy though, so we have to help them keep it safe, ok?”

Atsushi nodded solemnly, and as they both sat back to watch the two chefs at work, Aomine felt small hands slip a hard candy into his pocket, the “herbidore” then placed gently into his grasp.

~~~

Heart pounding. Sweat dripping down his temples. Water gulped down greedily into a parched throat. Legs collapsing. Near-delirious laughter. The pleasant burn of exhausted muscles. A deep contentment that seeped outwards from his core.

Aomine let out a long, happy sigh. He stretched his arms over his head, his fingers just able to brush through Kagami’s hair from where they were both lying on the ground at the side of the court. He heard the redhead huff, but neither had the breath to talk yet, so they lay there panting harshly. In the distance he could hear the happy sounds of the two boys playing with Atsushi’s toy dinosaurs in the sandbox just beyond the court fence.

The sudden, oh-so-strong pang of intense longing was back, and for a moment Aomine felt like he couldn’t breathe at all. How many times a day was he going to have to deal with this feeling? Because his heart soared with every smile Kagami made, but he had no idea how the guy would respond if Aomine even tried to hint at wanting something more than friendship. This was Japan, not America, and things were different here, people were a lot less… _open_ about these kinds of things, so much so that the blue-haired man despaired at ever knowing if there was a right way to show his feelings towards Kagami without the other cutting him out of his life forever.

Another sigh, this one with a much different tone to it. He heard Kagami getting to his feet, but he simply closed his eyes and made no move to follow him. He felt utterly drained now that his thoughts and his mood had taken a darker turn, and he felt as if an invisible weight was starting to press down on him, squeezing the air from his lungs and constricting his heart, a weight he hadn’t felt in many years, not since high school…

“WHAT THE—” Aomine spluttered, sitting up in shock as water from the bottle Kagami had dumped on his face dripped down to his shirt. “Fuck you, Bakagami,” he hissed, not wanting to swear too loud in case the kids heard. “Now you’re just being a sore loser.”

“Today was just practice,” Kagami had said once he managed to stop laughing. “I don’t care about losing yet, I’m still getting back into the swing of it.” The redhead held out a hand, and Aomine debated not taking it to show he was still pissed off about the water thing, but in the end his desire for any excuse to touch Kagami won out and he took the offered limb. Just as he got up, a beeping noise was heard coming from overhead, and both men looked up towards the open third-storey window to Kagami’s apartment.

“There goes the timer,” said the chef, grabbing his towel and now empty water bottle from the bench. “Boys! Food’s ready! We’re heading up!”

Tatsuya was at his dad’s side in an instant, declaring that he needed to be the one to turn off the heat and check the food since he was the sous-chef. Atsushi, though just as eager to get in and eat, was having trouble hanging on to his armful of toys, so Aomine went over and provided some assistance, letting the toddler stuff all the “herbidores” in his pockets while he held onto the T-Rexes. Aomine picked him up but kept him at arm’s length when he noticed the copious amounts of sand caught in the boy’s clothes and hair.

“I found a sand monster,” said the tanned man as they caught up with the other two, handing the youngster off to his father with a grimace. Sand was only fun when you were playing at the beach, not when you were sweaty and tired from basketball.

When they got back to the apartment Aomine and Tatsuya were sent to the kitchen to set the table and check on the food while Kagami went to go clean the sand off of Atsushi.

“Smells good,” Aomine commented honestly when the dark-haired boy lifted the lid to check on the contents of the crock pot. Tatsuya turned quickly to look at him, his one visible eye betraying his surprised before shinning with pride at the compliment.

“It tastes even better,” was the quiet reply, and Aomine smiled, happy to be making some kind of progress with the kid.

“I’m sure it does. Here, why don’t we set the table?”

“Ok.”

It didn’t take them long, Aomine taking things off the higher shelves and handing them down to Tatsuya to place on the table as he pleased. When the blue-haired man heard the telltale sounds of the shower being turned on, he figured they had enough time to watch some basketball on TV before the others were done getting clean.

He settled into his usual spot and flicked on the TV, starting to feel his exhaustion catching up with him as he upped the volume until he could understand what the commentators were saying.

“Oh, it’s in English!” Tatsuya said, hovering at the doorway for a second before slowly coming over to join Aomine on the couch, though he stuck to the opposite side.

“Yeah, they’re just doing highlights of the last game they showed. Wonder who’s gonna play next…” Aomine mumbled, huffing out a laugh when the scene cut to another old NBA game and he instantly recognized the home team. “Should have known.”

“Is that… you?” Tatsuya asked once the blue-haired number five had come onto court and the commentators had delved into an in-depth conversation about the home team’s ace’s performance so far that season, flashing clips from a few previous games while they talked.

“Yeah, that’s me. This game’s from the end of my last season; it’s a good one, you’ll like it.”

“Why did you stop?”

The question made Aomine’s heart clench, because no matter how simply he was able to explain it to his friends at the time, there had still been so much involved _emotionally_ in that decision, and a big part of him still missed the atmosphere of being part of the team and playing on those courts in front of the huge crowds.

Instead of unloading all of that on the kid, Aomine simply pointed to his bad elbow and gave him as best of a grin as he could.

“This one doesn’t always cooperate with me anymore, and it starts to hurt when I play too many days in a row. And _this_ one,” he added, pointing at his bad knee, “is a jerk that can’t keep me standing after a tough game.”

“So, like Kiyoshi-san’s knee?” Tatsuya asked, and Aomine was momentarily confused, which the kid must have noticed. “Kiyoshi-san is Daddy’s boss at the fire station. He said he played basketball in high school, but then his knee started to hurt so he had to stop playing and get surgery to fix it.”

“A bit, but mine isn’t bad enough to need surgery just yet,” Aomine explained. The two fell into silence for a moment, watching as the Aomine on-screen made a few beautiful formless shots in a row, putting his team in an early lead.

“He’s still really strong though,” Tatsuya said out of nowhere, bringing Aomine’s gaze back to him. “Kiyoshi-san, that is. At the last fundraiser day, the firefighters were doing a strength contest and he even beat Daddy. He’s really tall too, but his face looks like a puppy’s face,” he finished with a thoughtful frown, as if confused how someone of that size could ever look that way. Aomine gave a small laugh.

“He sounds like an interesting guy, I’d like to meet him.” Tetsuya nodded, as if Aomine’s wish somehow needed his approval. He smiled, shaking his head, and turned back to the TV as the game heated up, the other team starting to pull off their own moves to try and even the score.

Ten minutes later, a warm, damp bundle ran into the room and jumped onto the couch next to Aomine. The tanned man peeked into the mass of towels and spotted a thankfully sand-free Atsushi, cheeks still red from the heat of the water and wearing nothing but his underwear.

“Boo!” the bundle yell-whispered before breaking into a fit of giggles.

“Atsushi! Atsushi, get back here! No eating supper if you’re not wearing clothes!” Kagami called out from the bedroom.

Aomine grinned and picked up the towels, child and all, and carried the wriggling bundle back to the master bedroom, dropping him gently on the bed, but from enough of a height that Atsushi bounced, making him laugh even harder.

“Atsushi, you—” Kagami started as he exited the washroom, pausing when he noticed Aomine was there as well. The blue-haired man tried to swallow, his mouth suddenly dry at the sight of a mostly naked Kagami, skin still flushed and damp. For the sake of Aomine’s composure, he was glad the redhead was wearing a dark pair of underwear instead of one of the red ones, because as he stood there toweling off his hair they would have left nothing to the imagination.

“Ah, thanks for bringing him back, can you try getting him into those clothes?” Kagami continued, pointing at a shirt and some pants he had laid out on the bed, while Aomine willed his blood to stop travelling southwards.

“Sure,” he croaked, turning hastily away to help Atsushi get dressed. He heard drawers open and close behind him and the unmistakable sounds of the other man getting dressed. Aomine sat on the bed once they were done, Atsushi climbing over him to get to the dinosaurs that were still stashed away in his pockets.

Aomine made the mistake of looking up, as Kagami was standing right in front of him, a fond smile on his face as he watched his son, but still entirely shirtless. Without thinking, Aomine brought a hand up and lightly poked at his abs, and the redhead started at the sudden touch but made no indication of backing away.

“Seriously, this is not fair… you’ve got all this just from being a volunteer firefighter? Really?” Aomine said, quickly giving a plausible excuse for his behaviour that would hopefully not reveal his true feelings. Kagami laughed, and he felt the vibrations of it from where they were still touching. He took his hand away, worried he had left it there for a suspiciously long amount of time, but the redhead didn’t give him any weird looks, instead just quirking an eyebrow and lifting his arms to flex, showing off even more.

“It used to be a part-time job, back before I had my own restaurant, and the training for it is pretty intense. Gotta be able to lift any strange men I find asleep in my bed,” Kagami explained with a teasing smile, his words confirming Aomine’s suspicions about last night.

“Shut up!” Aomine barked, feeling embarrassed. _Damn it!_

“Mine-chin, Daddy, I want food,” said Atsushi suddenly, breaking the two from their conversation.

“Ok kiddo, let’s get you to the table,” said Aomine, glad for an excuse to leave and figuring he’d give Kagami a chance to put on a shirt before his own body could find another way to betray him. He lifted the kid off the bed and they walked to the kitchen together, meeting up with Tatsuya who had still been watching the game on TV.

Once Kagami, now fully clothed, joined them, they sat down together to eat, all of them tearing through their portions with glee as the exercise and long wait had made them quite ravenous.

Just as Kagami brought out some leftover brownies for them to share, however, Tatsuya and Atsushi decided to gang up on Aomine:

“Daddy, Aomine can’t have dessert, he said a bad word earlier!” the black-haired kid said with a sneaky smile. Aomine noted he’d dropped the honorific, so that was some sort of an improvement at least.

“Yeah, he said lots of bad words! Can I have his brownie?” Atsushi added, already leaning over to try and reach the plate of desserts.

“Really?” Kagami asked, grinning, and Aomine just shrugged, not even bothering to defend himself. He simply got up and slowly walked over to the living room.

“Well, guess if you guys are all busy eating dessert, I’ll get to choose the movie for movie night…”

“No! It’s my turn!” screeched Atsushi, and he stuffed the last two bites of his brownie into his mouth, jumped out of his chair and ran into the living room past Aomine, who had stopped walking so he could lean against the doorframe and laugh.

~~~

Dishes done, movie picked, they settled onto the couch, Atsushi choosing to cuddle up with his dad for a change, leaving Tatsuya sitting between both adults, but more importantly, right next to Aomine.

The movie was for a bit of a younger crowd, so Aomine kept drifting in and out of sleep, waking up at some point to find Tatsuya slumped over and dozing against his side. He smiled, and his grin widened when he looked up and caught Kagami’s eye, Atsushi still entirely focused on the screen. Aomine felt it hard to fall back asleep with those deep red eyes resting on him, but he eventually managed to drift off again.

He woke up when Tatsuya’s sleeping form was removed from his side, but he kept his eyes closed, too tired to want to help move the kids right at that moment. When Kagami’s heavy footfalls returned, he expected the other man to shake him awake and send him off, but instead felt warm arms curl under his knees and around his shoulders.

He cursed himself as he startled a bit, enough to make it obvious that he was no longer asleep, though only he knew he hadn’t just woken up.

“Sorry for waking you,” said Kagami softly, helping Aomine up from the couch. “Thought we’d be needing a repeat of last night to get you home.”

“No, no, I can walk,” Aomine said with a yawn, only then noticing Kagami had brought an arm back around his shoulders.

It took _everything_ Aomine had not to turn to him right then and pull him into a kiss. With a shaky exhale, he kept through with the motions of picking up his things, putting on his shoes, saying his goodbyes and leaving the apartment, the silence of the hall once the door shut behind him suddenly deafening to his ears.

“Fuck,” he hissed, rubbing at his eye because it was bothering him, _not_ because he felt himself tearing up over his ridiculous romantic frustrations. He unlocked and opened the door to Tetsu’s apartment, jumping when his light-blue-haired friend was standing right there in the entranceway.

“Walking yourself home tonight I see, Daiki-kun,” said Tetsu in a tone that betrayed an inner smirk. “And here I was thinking Kagami-kun would need help getting you home and into bed once again, like a teenager passed out drunk on their first night out…”

“Shut up, Tetsu!” Aomine roared, tackling his best friend and feeling absolutely no guilt whatsoever of tickling the shit out of him, Satsuki showing up a minute later to smother the both of them with pillows for being too loud.

When Aomine finally went to bed, his heart ached with the thought of how his pillow lacked the distinct scent of his favourite redhead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is dedicated to the awesome anon who searched and found the third mystery hint that nobody else had pointed out yet!  
> you can check out [this tag](http://shooponthemoon.tumblr.com/tagged/shoop_writes) to get a better idea of what all that was about haha and definitely follow me if you want more behind-the-scenes bonus info like that! ;)  
> I also occasionally take au idea requests when I want to do some speed writing, and since AoKaga is the otp of otps I always love getting requests for them ^u^
> 
> thanks guys! hoped you liked it! angst to come, unfortunately... sorry :P


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For AoKaga Month day 2: Birthday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well.  
> long time no see haha
> 
> for those who don't follow me on tumblr, basically I took a month off to figure out the plot timeline a bit more, and because I needed a break from a long fic to work on short AU prompts, which were great!  
> sorry if this is short but it's the best I can do for now... I have a convention next weekend in Montreal (luckily my cosplays are already done now that I have all the pieces, so no more stressing over that). AND I'm leaving for Japan on the 12th so I'm pretty busy getting ready for that.
> 
> so enjoy! just more fluff for now

July was reaching its end, and Aomine was finally settling into a comfortable routine with Kagami and the boys. Babysitting had gotten a lot more fun for Aomine now that Tatsuya had stopped ignoring him and often joined him and his brother as they played games or watched NBA matches on TV.

Tetsu had been pretty busy too since he’d been filling in at a cram school that was down two teachers due to a summer bug going around in the staff and kids. Ryouta had spent most of his time with the sitter downstairs and with Satsuki, who shifted her schedule so she could get home earlier and pick up the blond. So it was easy to see why the kid was so excited when his dad finally had a Sunday off to spend with him, having hardly seen him for the past week.

“Aominecchi! You gonna play with me today too?” Ryouta asked, his smile wide as he pulled on Aomine’s leg, almost tripping him as he walked to the table with a plate full of food.

“Sure,” Aomine said as he shrugged. The restaurant was only open for a few hours over lunch on Sundays, so Kagami had no need for him to babysit that day.

“Yay!” the blond screeched excitedly, racing off to go pick a toy for Aomine, who smiled fondly as he watched him go.

“You have gotten much better with children since you’ve started babysitting at Kagami-kun’s, Daiki-kun,” said Tetsu in a quiet voice, his sudden presence making Aomine cough out his orange juice.

“Sh-shut up!” was all he managed to bark out before resuming his coughing fit.

The light-blue-haired man smiled as he turned to leave.

“You know, Daiki-kun…”

“What?” Aomine growled before stuffing a piece of toast in his mouth.

“Kagami-kun’s birthday is exactly a week from today.”

Tetsu had to stifle a laugh as he walked away, the sound of Aomine choking on his bread quite entertaining to his ears.

~~~

“This is Chief Kiyoshi of the fire department, how may I help you?”

The voice on the phone was warm and kind, and Aomine could practically hear the man’s smile as he talked. He exhaled with relief, feeling certain this type of person would be easily willing to help him.

“Kiyoshi-san? Hello, this is Aomine Daiki, I’m, uh…”

“Oh, Kagami’s new friend! You babysit his kids, right? Nice to meet you!”

“Ah, um, yes, that’s me. Nice to meet you.”

“What can I do for you, Aomine-san?”

“Well, as you probably know, next Sunday is Kagami’s birthday, and I was wondering if I could get you to do me a favour…”

~~~

“Aomine? Hey, it’s me. Sorry for waking you up.” Kagami’s voice was slightly muffled, and Aomine’s tired mind veered to unsafe territory before he reminded himself that the man was probably holding his phone to his face with his shoulder as he raced about the apartment, if the background noises were anything to go by.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Aomine mumbled softly, voice still rough and deep from sleep. _I’d love to be woken up by your voice every morning_ , he thinks.

“Look, sorry to spring this on you, but Kiyoshi-san just called—he’s the chief at the fire station—and said one of his guys is sick, so I’m gonna go in and cover his shift until around suppertime. Are you ok if I drop the kids off at Kuroko’s place, have them play with you two and Ryouta until I get back?”

“Yeah, for sure, no problem,” Aomine said, happy he didn’t have to hide his devious smile from the secrecy of his bedroom. _Looks like Kiyoshi-san came through in the end. I’ll have to thank the guy later_.

“Ok great, thanks Aomine,” said Kagami before hanging up.

The blue-haired man had yet to spare a glance at the clock, but he figured whatever time it was he should get up and start getting ready, the kids would be there any second…

Aomine slept on, almost oblivious to his surroundings when the redhead came by a few minutes later, tucking a still-dreaming toddler into the tanned man’s arms. Tatsuya climbed in by himself and settled in at Aomine’s back, sitting up against the headboard so he could keep reading his book. Aomine would had gone undisturbed if Ryouta hadn’t chosen to join in on the fun, climbing up and stepping on the man’s legs before tucking himself in, wedged between the warmth of Aomine’s back and Tatsuya’s legs.

Kagami smiled at Aomine’s bleary-eyed look, the confused groan he let out coupled with his tussled hair making seem as child-like as the kids surrounding him.

“Just go back to sleep, Ahomine,” the redhead said, gently pushing Aomine’s head back down onto the pillow. Aomine, certain it was some sort of dream because he’d definitely heard something like that before, did as he was told and quickly slipped back into his deep slumber.

~~~

Aomine woke up, his breathing laboured and his body covered in sleeping children. He stilled for a moment, surprised, before letting himself relax.

“Oh, right,” he mumbled, remembering. He struggled to free himself from the two little ones clinging to him as Tatsuya watched him from the corner of his eye, his amused smile betraying the fact that he wasn’t reading anymore.

Once he’d finished up in the bathroom, the kids were all awake and waiting for him, so he took them out to have a late breakfast and to explain the plan he had come up with to celebrate Kagami’s birthday, their eyes lighting up with excitement, especially at the mention of cake.

The doorbell rang and Tetsu went to go answer while Aomine tried to clean up the younger two, their hands sticky with the honey from their toast.

“Yooo! Kuroko, long time no see!” an excited voice exclaimed, and Aomine turned in time to see Koganei, Mitobe and Izuki walk in carrying baking supplies and cake pans. Hyuuga and Riko followed, their arms full of groceries for supper, and a timid Furihata came last, holding hardly anything as he’d only been trusted with the bottle of sprinkles.

“Alright!” Aomine said happily, clapping his hands together and laughing as Atsushi and Ryouta copied the action. “Let’s get started!”

“I’ll leave you boys to it then,” said Satsuki with a smile and a wink as she watched them get set up in the kitchen. “If you don’t mind, I’ll take Riko with me and we can go round up all the gifts for Kagami.”

“Perfect!” said the brunette, smiling as she linked arms with the pink-haired woman. “We couldn’t risk bringing anything with us to the restaurant in case he dropped by on the way to the fire station, so everything’s still at my place.”

“See you later!” the girls said in unison as they left.

Tetsu watched as Aomine struggled to stop the kids from rifling through all the bags of ingredients that had been brought, Tatsuya just as excited to see as the younger two, while the men from the restaurant fooled around as they debated which cake recipe would be best suited to Kagami’s tastes.

Tetsu smiled when Hyuuga smacked Izuki for making some sort of pun involving “redhead” and “red velvet,” glad to see there was at least another responsible adult in this apartment full of children.

~~~

“SURPRISE!”

Kagami stood unmoving, stunned at the crowd gathered in Tetsu’s apartment, all wearing silly red birthday hats and smiling like idiots. Kiyoshi had to give him a gentle push for him to take the last few steps to get inside, gently closing the door behind them.

“Daddy, Daddy! Look what we made!” Atsushi exclaimed as he rushed towards his dad, decorated cookie in hand. They’d had time to spare while the cake was baking, so Izuki had whipped them up a batch of sugar cookies they’d decorated with icing, sprinkles and bits of dried fruits and nuts.

“Happy birthday,” Tatsuya said shyly as he tightly hugged his dad’s leg, Atsushi still trying to shove the cookie into the redhead’s hand.

“Happy birthday, Bakagami,” Aomine said with a grin as he slung an arm around Kagami’s shoulders, the action so often done to him making him feel giddy and warm from getting to do it to the redhead. Tetsu was standing by with extra hats for the last two arrivals.

“Th-thank you, everyone,” Kagami finally managed to say, still fighting through his immense surprise. “This is great, I… Thank you.”

The meal went well, and Aomine was surprised yet happy they managed to fit that many chairs and extra fold-out tables into Tetsu’s dining room. The food was delicious and everyone spent the meal eating, talking and laughing, though Aomine was rather silent and spend more time than he’d care to admit watching the redhead’s stupidly happy smile as he chatted with his friends and family.

He was startled when a huge hand clapped him on the back, making him almost spit out the bite he’d just put in his mouth. He turned to see Kiyoshi’s dopey grin, and he couldn’t help but smile back at the tall man.

“That was a really great idea, Aomine. I’m glad we were able to make it work,” he said, still smiling.

“Well, it’s all thanks to you. You were a great help.”

“Ah well I’m just glad that he’s happy. Plus I’m sure everyone deserves a night off to spend in great company!”

Koganei then initiated a round of cheers, and the food was then cleared and the cake brought out, Kagami puffing out his cheeks like an adorable idiot when he went to blow out the candles. When they’d finished eating Atsushi jump-started the gift giving by handing over his present, a giant sugar cookie shaped and decorated to look like Kagami. Tatsuya followed suit by showing him the basketball keychain he’d picked out at the store (and that Aomine had paid for), Kagami swearing that the two gifts were the best he’d ever gotten, the kids beaming with pride at his words.

They moved to the living room to share the rest of the gifts, Kagami’s coworkers having bought him things like new kitchen gadgets and blank recipe books. Tetsu and Satsuki had paid for the renewal of the subscriptions to all his favourite basketball magazines, and that had earned the two of them bone-crushing hugs from the redhead.

Somehow Aomine found himself the last one to hand over his gift, the box badly wrapped at the end he’d tried to do himself, and perfectly done at the other one that Satsuki had taken pity on.

Aomine sat, wringing his hands nervously as Kagami chuckled at the wrapping before ripping it away, revealing a shoebox with Nike’s prominent logo on top.

“No. Nooo. NOOO!” Kagami whooped excitedly, opening the box and taking out the brand-new basketball shoes Aomine had bought him, admiring them in the light. “You did not!”

“ _Yes_ , I did, Bakagami,” said Aomine with a smirk, trying to appear relaxed but his body was thrumming with happy, excited energy thanks to Kagami’s reaction to the gift. His heart was starting to speed up as he took in the sheer joy on the redhead’s face. “I had to express ship them from America, since they don’t have the new model in our size around here, but I used to have a sponsorship with Nike so they were pretty accommodating. I noticed you needed new shoes, and maybe these ones will finally help you lose to me by only a few points next time we play.”

The box of shoes was carefully placed on the couch, Atsushi and Ryouta instantly scooting over to poke at them, before Kagami launched himself at Aomine and pretty much tackled him to the ground in a bruising hug.

Aomine’s body felt warm all over, and he was sure his face was red as a tomato, but he laughed along with Kagami and returned the hug, the redhead’s happiness contagious.

“ _Thank you_ ,” Kagami breathed into Aomine’s neck, his words just for him. Aomine smiled and squeezed him tighter, forgetting the room full of people and that anything non-Kagami still existed.

In that moment, there was just him and Kagami, and in that moment, he was the happiest he had ever been in his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> like I said, not sure when the next update will be.  
> probably in a month when I'm back, I don't really think I'll have time to write while I'm away and I don't think I'll want to write on the plane haha. maybe on the Shinkansen, but we'll see :P
> 
> thanks for sticking around, guys!  
> comments are super appreciated as always <3

**Author's Note:**

> I am notoriously bad at getting around to updating fics so please be gentle with me XD
> 
> My tumblr is [shooponthemoon](http://shooponthemoon.tumblr.com/) and I guess writing prompts are still open for any of my fandoms, but no promises how quickly I'll be able to get to them :P  
> But if you wanna come talk aokaga headcanons then by all means I am listening 24/7 haha


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